Three CIPK homologous sequences (GenBank accession number:AY104819,EU974290 and EU968441) were bioinformatically isolated from maize.Then a sequence coded by them included the motif of the CIPK family and were named as ZmCIPK1,ZmCIPK17,ZmCIPK18 based on its homologies.RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression levels of the three genes changed under the treatment of 18% PEG and 4℃.The expression of ZmCIPK1 was changed obviously in roots under the drought stress,but changed little under the cold stress.The expressions of ZmCIPK17 and ZmCIPK18 were both strongly induced.However,there are differences for the expression profiles of the two genes in different stress.At the same time,the expression profiles of the gene in leaves and roots were also different.These results showed that ZmCIPK17 and ZmCIPK18 may play a key role under drought and cold stresses with different mechanism of regulation.