• The MaC2H2-like is closely related to fruit ripening disorder by chilling stress. • MaC2H2-like activates the transcription level of fruit softening-related genes. • MaEBF1 interacting MaC2H2-like enhanced the expression of softening-related genes. • MaC2H2-like- overexpressing promotes fruit ripening in 'Fenjiao' banana. As one of the largest transcription factor families, C2H2 zinc finger proteins contain a zinc finger motif and a conserved DNA-binding homeodomain. Although C2H2 zinc finger proteins have been found to play an essential role in ethylene biosynthetic and cold stress in banana fruit, their transcriptional regulatory mechanisms involved in the softening of 'Fenjiao' banana remain largely elusive. In this study, a new MaC2H2-like gene was identified, which is closely related to fruit softening. MaC2H2-like localizes in the nucleus. MaC2H2-like activated the transcription of four starch (MaBAM4 , MaBAM6 , MaISA2 and MaPWD1) and five cell wall (MaEXP-A2 , MaEXP-A8 , MaSUR14 , MaSUR14-like and MaXYL32) degradation-related genes, by specifically interacting with their promoters. Protein-protein interaction assays showed that MaC2H2-like cooperates with ethylene-insensitive 3-binding F-box protein (MaEBF1) in vitro and vivo , and their interaction enhanced the binding and activated the promoter activities of MaBAM4 , MaPWD1 , MaISA2 , MaEXP-A2 , MaSUR14-like and MaXYL32. The transient overexpression of MaC2H2-like in 'Fenjiao' banana fruit promoted fruit ripening and softening by accelerating ethylene production, decreasing fruit firmness and inducing the transcription of starch and cell wall degradation-related genes. Collectively, we uncovered a novel module of MaC2H2-like-MaEBF1 that cooperates in actively impacting starch and cell wall degradation by up-regulating the transcript level of genes related to the degradation of starch and cell walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]