Abstract: Originating from Africa and domesticated in Asia， asparagus bean ［Vigna unguiculata ssp. sesquipedialis （L.） Verdc］ is an important vegetable crop in China. Drought is an important environmental factor restricting the safety of asparagus bean production; therefore it is fundamental to identify drought tolerance genes from the asparagus bean germplasms. Fluorescence quantitative PCR is a useful tool for quantitative assay of gene expression. In this study， we validated and compared expression pattern of a subset of 11 genes from an in-house cowpea cDNA microarray with fluorescence quantitative PCR. It turned out that in roots and leaves of two different asparagus bean cultivars subject to drought stress， qPCR and microarray generally got similar results. The gene/tissue combinations showed congruent expression regulations between the two methods included 27 up-regulated and 7 down-regulated genes， relative to 10 inconsistently observed combinations， giving a rate of consistence of 0.773. This experiment verified the confidence of high-throughput cDNA microarray in monitoring drought-related gene expressions， which lays a foundation for mining and utilizing drought-tolerant genes in asparagus bean. The causes of differential gene expression patterns between the two methods were discussed．

Key words: asparagus bean, drought tolerance, qPCR, expression patterns, cDNA