Cloning and Expression Analysis of Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Transcription Factor Gene GhTCP1

For isolating the cotton GhTCP1 gene,the amino acid sequences of known TCP genes from other plant species were aligned in order to design degenerate primers based on the conserved amino acid sequence.According to the sequence of the cloned central conserved fragment,specific primers were designed to extend to the 5' and 3' end through the RACE(rapid amplification cDNA ends) technique to obtain the full length cDNA sequence.The length of open reading frame of GhTCP1 was 1194 bp and encoded 397 amino acids.Sequence alignment indicated that GhTCP1 was clustered in the same group with TCP transcription factors controlling flower symmetry.Semi-quantative RT-PCR analysis indicated that GhTCP1 was specifically expressed in the lateral bud.