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Overexpression of lettuce TEOSINTE BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PCF (TCP) transcription factor genes (LsTCP13 and LsTCP17) promotes flowering time through upregulation of AtFT and AtAP1 in Arabidopsis

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Abstract

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.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (J.H.Lee), upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. H. Ryu for kindly providing research material (a RFP-tagged AtARR2 marker). We also thank Ms. Y.Y. Choi, Center for University-wide Research Facilities (CURF) at Jeonbuk National University, for confocal microscopic observations. This work was supported by grants from the Basic Science Research Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) (2020R1I1A1A01072914 to Y.-C. Kim) and the Rural Development Administration (RDA) (PJ01652303 to J.H. Lee), Republic of Korea. This work was also supported by Universities leading lab-specific startups through the Commercializations Promotion Agency for R&D Outcomes (COMPA) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. startuplab22-016) and research funds of Jeonbuk National University in 2022 (to J.H. Lee).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Life Sciences, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju, 54896, South Korea

    Young Jae Yun, Seon Suk Kim, Jeong Hwan Lee & Young-Cheon Kim

  2. HOPS Biosciences, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do, 54896, South Korea

    Jeong Hwan Lee & Young-Cheon Kim

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  1. Young Jae Yun
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Yun, Y.J., Kim, S.S., Lee, J.H. et al. Overexpression of lettuce TEOSINTE BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PCF (TCP) transcription factor genes (LsTCP13 and LsTCP17) promotes flowering time through upregulation of AtFT and AtAP1 in Arabidopsis. Plant Biotechnol Rep 17, 509–517 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-023-00850-9

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