Abstract: In this study，the data of loquat transcriptome were used to identify and characterize loquat WRKY transcription factors. The results show that this study isolated 33 sequences with typical WRKY structure domains，and the CDS length was distributed in 492–2 040 bp，named EjWRKY01–EjWRKY33. The analysis results of group identification and evolutionary tree show that the loquat WRKY TF can be divided into three categories，including classⅠ，Ⅱ and Ⅲ，the number of each class was 6，22 and 5，respectively. Class Ⅱ is further divided into five subgroups（a–e）. The genomic DNA sequence of EjWRKY TF is from 895 to 3 873 bp with 1–5 introns，whose encoded protein was in the range of 163–679 amino acids. The prediction results of cis-acting elements of WRKY promoter show that most WRKY promoter sequences have typical TATA and CAAT elements. The phylogenetic analysis of WRKY TF among Arabidopsis and loquat showed that many WRKY proteins clustered together，displaying close phylogenetic relationships，which indicated that although there were differences among the gene sequences of different species，the functional features of the WRKY proteins in regulating biotic and abiotic stress responses，metabolic regulation，signal transduction，growth and development and morphogenesis were similar. Furthermore，the RT-PCR results showed that most of EjWRKY genes were expressed in root，stem，leaf，flower and fruit of loquat，but the relative expression levels were different，which suggested that WRKY family genes may have different functions in the growth and development of loquat.

Key words: Eriobotrya japonica, WRKY transcription factor, characteristic analysis, phylogenetic analysis, tissue expression