*2.1. The Maize Genome Contains 46 TCP Family Genes*

We comprehensively performed a genome-wide search for putative *TCP* genes in maize. Initially, the protein sequences of the putative maize TCP TFs were retrieved from the Plant Transcription Factor Database 3.0 (available online: http://planttfdb.cbi.pku.edu.cn). Subsequently, a BLASTP analysis was performed in Phytozome V10 (available online: http://www.phytozome.net/eucalyptus.php), using all of the *Arabidopsis* and rice TCP protein sequences as queries, and the predicted protein sequences without a TCP domain (Pfam: PF03634) were excluded from the results. A Hidden Markov Model (HMM) search was also performed against the maize database using PF03634. Ultimately, 46 genes, including the 29 *ZmTCPs* previously reported by Chai et al. [42], were retrieved and further verified for the presence of a canonical TCP domain. The 17 newly identified *ZmTCPs* were named *ZmTCP30* to *ZmTCP46*. Their locus IDs, genome locations, coding sequence (CDS)lengths, and protein lengths are listed in Table 1. The 46 *ZmTCP* genes were unevenly distributed throughout the maize genome on 10 chromosomes, without any clustering. The 46 ZmTCP proteins contained a range of 98 to 778 amino acids, corresponding to 11.76 kDa to 84.78 kDa in molecular weight (Table 1). Their theoretical pI (isoelectric point)values ranged from 5.13 to 12.23, with a mean of 8.14 (Table 1), indicating that most of them were weakly alkaline (Table 1).
