Abstract:Previous transcriptome analysis has revealed that a TCP7like gene is highly expressed in the ray florets of Chrysanthemum morifolium. In order to clarify the presence or absence of ray florets and its molecular regulation mechanism in the formation of chrysanthemum capitulum, we cloned the TCP7like gene from C. morifolium ‘Fen Ditan’ by RTPCR and RACE, and named CmTCP7 (accession number: MK140598). The open reading frame (ORF) of CmTCP7 was 786 bp, encoding a protein consisting of 261 amino acids with a typical helixloophelix TCP domain. CmTCP7 was a hydrophilic unstable protein which belongs to class Ⅰ of plantspecific TCP family and primarily localized to the cell nucleus. The results of quantitative realtime PCR showed that CmTCP7 was highly expressed during floral bud differentiation of chrysanthemum, suggesting that CmTCP7 may be involved in the formation of floral buds. During the flowering time, CmTCP7 was found to be highly expressed in ray florets, especially in ray petals, indicating that CmTCP7 may promote the growth of ray petals and participate in the formation of zygomorphic ray florets.