Maize belongs to the Poaceae family which also includes the economically important grasses such as sorghum and sugarcane. It has the highest yield potential among all cereal crops due to its large leaf area. It uses C4 pathway for carbon fixation that is more efficient at high temperatures than the more common C3-pathway. Maize  has  good  economic  value. It is  cultivated  almost  all  over  the  world. Its production  is limited  by  environmental  stress  in  which draught  and  water  is  most  important.  Stress usually causes a decrease in crop production. It inhibits the photosynthesis of plants, causes changes of chlorophyll contents and components and damage of photosynthetic apparatus. Proteolysis or protein degradation is a complex process involving numerous signaling pathways of proteases in the cytoplasm, the nucleus and cell organelles. It is essential for biological and physiological processes, for cellular housekeeping and the stress response by removing abnormal or misfolded proteins, for supplying amino acids needed to make new proteins, for controlling metabolism, homeosis, programmed cell death of specific plant organs, cells embryogenesis, senescence and germination.  Proteolysis during biotic stresses and plant senescence is well documented but little is known about the role of endoproteases involved in drought stress response and their physiological significance. In the present work, we will the expression pattern of endoproteases particularly cysteine proteases and their natural inhibitors ‘cystatin’ under drought stress conditions.