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<div> In the north of China, <i>Diospyros</i> plants are vulnerable to low-temperature damage in winter and is considered as a major factor restricting the development of the persimmon industry in Northern China. <i>Diospyros lotus</i> L. is featured by high survival potential of seedlings, cold tolerance, and grafting affinity with D. <i>kaki</i> Thunb. <i>D. lotus</i> has been frequently used as rootstocks for <i>Diospyros spp</i>. ERF transcriptional factors are a subfamily of the AP2/ERF gene family and play an important role in plant growth and stress tolerance. To explore the structure and function of the ERF transcription factors in <i>D. lotus</i>, we performed RT-PCR to clone <i>DlERF10</i> from the leaves. The <i>DlERF10</i> gene was 1104 bp long, encoding 367 amino acids. In order to deeply study the cold tolerance of <i>DlERF10</i> gene, the <i>pBI121-DlERF10</i> overexpression vector was constructed, and agrobacterium-mediated transformation was carried out to transfer the gene into tobacco plants. The wild-type and transgenic tobacco plants were subjected to low-temperature stress. The results showed that the transgenic plants were less severely damaged by low-temperature stress than the wild-type plants. Besides, the SOD, POD and CAT activities of leaves enhanced, and PRO contents of leaves increased, while the MDA content decreased. It was concluded that the <i>DlERF10</i> gene increased the activity of protective enzymes in tobacco plants, thereby strengthening the tolerance to low-temperature stress. The present study proposes a candidate gene for engineering cold stress tolerance in <i>Diospyros</i> spp. </div>