| Summary: | NAC transcription factors (TFs) are plant-specific TFs that play essential roles in plant development; however, the function of NAC TFs in loquat development remains unknown. The natural triploid loquat (<i>Eriobotrya japonica</i> Lindl.), Longquan No.1. B355, has larger organs than its corresponding diploid loquat (B2). Here, we cloned an NAC-like TF (EjNACL47 (NAC-like 47)) from the cDNA of triploid loquat B355 flowers. EjNACL47 has a conserved domain of NAC TFs and is homologous to AtNAC47. Transient expression in tobacco leaves revealed that EjNACL47 localized to the nucleus, and yeast-two-hybrid screening confirmed that the C-terminus displayed transcriptional activity. Interestingly, real-time qRT-PCR indicated that the expression levels of <i>EjNACL47</i> in leaves and flower organs in triploid loquat (B355) were higher than those in diploid loquat (B2), implying that <i>EjNACL47</i> might be associated with the larger organ size in B355. Moreover, <i>Arabidopsis</i> lines ectopically expressing <i>EjNACL47</i> presented obviously larger leaves, flowers, and siliques than the wild-type variant, suggesting that <i>EjNACL47</i> plays a positive role in <i>Arabidopsis</i> organ enlargement. These results offer insight into the molecular mechanism of NAC TFs involved in regulating organ size in loquat.
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