Real-time quantitative PCR was used for identification of expression profiles of 10 water stress induced genes from CN165,a drought-tolerant maize inbred line.The results indicated that all the 10 genes except Mads and Grp greatly increased with increasing intensity of drought stress in silks.In ears,9 of 10 genes significantly increased with increasing intensity of drought stress except Mads.The results based on real-time quantitative PCR and macroarray suggested that Arf3,Mads,Trx and F15 were the four important genes which may play vital roles in drought tolerance.