A family of plant-specific TEOSINTE BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PROLIFERATING CELL FACTORS (TCP) transcription factors function in plant growth and development such as flowering time and thermomorphogenesis. To investigate the biological roles of three lettuce TCP genes homologous to Arabidopsis thaliana TCP5 (AtTCP5), TCP13 (AtTCP13), and TCP17 (AtTCP17), we first isolated LsTCP5, LsTCP13, and LsTCP17 from a lettuce cultivar. The amino acid sequences of the respective LsTCP proteins were 38–46% identical to the corresponding AtTCP proteins. LsTCP5, LsTCP13, and LsTCP17 expression were different in four tissues and were gradually decreased during vegetative growth. Our subcellular localization and yeast two hybrid analyses also showed that the three LsTCP proteins targeted in the nucleus and could interact with FLOWERING LOCUS D (FD) and PHTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR4 (PIF4) in lettuce. p35S::LsTCP13 and p35S::LsTCP17 Col-0 plants accelerated flowering by upregulating Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T (AtFT) and APETALA1 (AtAP1) expression, implying that LsTCP13 and LsTCP17 positively controls flowering time. Our results demonstrated that the three LsTCPs are the functional counterparts of corresponding AtTCPs, and also suggested that at least two LsTCPs may be valuable for the genetic engineering of flowering time in lettuce using genome-editing technology.

植物特有的TEOSINTE BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PROLIFERATING CELL FACTORS ( TCP ) 转录因子家族在植物生长和发育（如开花时间和热形态发生）中发挥作用。为了研究与拟南芥 TCP5 ( AtTCP5 )、TCP13 ( AtTCP13 ) 和TCP17 ( AtTCP17 )同源的三个生菜TCP基因的生物学作用，我们首先分离了LsTCP5、LsTCP13和LsTCP17来自生菜品种。各个 LsTCP 蛋白的氨基酸序列与相应的 AtTCP 蛋白有 38-46% 的同一性。LsTCP5、LsTCP13和LsTCP17在四种组织中的表达量不同，并且在营养生长过程中逐渐下降。我们的亚细胞定位和酵母两种杂交分析还表明，这三种 LsTCP 蛋白靶向细胞核，并且可以与生菜中的 FLOWERING LOCUS D (FD) 和 PHTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR4 (PIF4) 相互作用。p35S::LsTCP13和p35S::LsTCP17 Col-0 植物通过上调拟南芥 FLOWERING LOCUS T ( AtFT ) 和APETALA1 (AtAP1 ) 表达，意味着LsTCP13和LsTCP17正向控制开花时间。我们的结果表明，这三个LsTCP是相应AtTCP的功能对应物，并且还表明至少两个LsTCP对于使用基因组编辑技术对生菜开花时间进行基因工程可能有价值。