Abstract:The members of CYC/TB1 subclass in TCP gene family play an important role in the regulation of shoot branching. Four new NtBRC1-Like genes, designated NtBRC1-Like1, 2, 3 and 4, were isolated from Nicotiana tabacum using silico cloning strategy combined RT-PCR methods. The length of CDS sequences of four NtBRC1-Like genes were 1140, 1062, 987 and 1041 bp, respectively. The deduced protein sequences contained 379, 353, 328 and 346 amino acids, respectively, and exhibited high homology with other members of CYC/TB1 subclass. The analysis of conserved domain showed that, in addition to the TCP core domain, four NtBRC1-Like proteins also had the R domain specific to CYC/TB1 proteins. The phylogenetic tree showed that four NtBRC1-Like proteins belonged to CYC/TB1 subclass of TCP family, however, four NtBRC1-Like proteins could be divided into two groups, one is NtBRC1-Like1/4,another is NtBRC1-Like2/3. Real-time quantitative PCR assay indicated that the expression profile of NtBRC1-Like genes exhibited significant tissue specificity. The expression level of NtBRC1-Like1/4 in axillary bud was the highest, however, NtBRC1-Like2/3 expressed higher in leaf and axillary bud. These results demonstrated that the functions of NtBRC1s in tobacco might be differentiated just like in tomato.