Abstract: The full length of two dehydrin（DHN）genes from the young fruit of loquat（Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.‘Ninghaibai’）were obtained using RT-PCR and RACE-PCR approach. The deduced amino acid sequences of the DHN1 and DHN2 possessed the typical characters of DHN family. However，they differ from each other significantly in the structure characteristics. DHN1 cDNA sequence length is 639 bp，which contains an open reading frame that would encode 188 amino acid residues，and it is Y2SK3 type dehydrin；DHN2 cDNA sequence length is 858 bp，which contains an open reading frame that would encode 273 amino acid residues，and it is SK3 type dehydrin. The relative electric conduction was significantly increased in the loquat fruit treated with–3 ℃ for 24 h，which suggested that the cell membrane was injured，and it was more serious in the loquat fruit treated with–6 ℃ for 24 h. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR and Western-blotting analysis showed that the expression of both DHN1 and DHN2 were induced by cold stress. The results suggested that both DHN1 and DHN2 involved in cold resistant in loquat young fruit 　　

Key words: loquat, DHN, gene clone, cold stress, expression