The Dof (DNAbinding with one zinc finger) protein family is a group of plant specific transcription factors involved in the regulation of plant growth and development and metabolism pathway. So far, the expression pattern of ZmDOFs in different tissues or in response to various abiotic stresses has rarely been reported. Here, the expression profiles of 9 ZmDOFs under various abiotic stresses (salt, drought, nitrate nitrogen deficiency and ammonium nitrogen deficiency) have been carefully studied used realtime quantitative qRTPCR. The results showed: (1) bioinformatic analysis indicated that 9 ZmbZIPs scattered in 5 chromosomes, and clustered into four subfamilies through evolutionary analysis. (2) Tissue expression analysis showed that 9 ZmDOFs have tissue specific expression patterns, especially high expression in tassels or young ears. ZmDOF1, ZmDOF4, ZmDOF11 and ZmDOF12 were upregulated by 18, 60, 11 and 75 fold in ears, respectively, compared with roots, while ZmDOF19, ZmDOF26, ZmDOF27 and ZmDOF42 were upregulated by 360,28,13 and 44 fold in tassels, respectively, compared with roots, indicating that these genes play a pivotal roles in tassel of ear development. (3) Results by qRTPCR indicated that some ZmDOFs were differentially induced in response to osmotic, salt, and nitrogen stresses. 7 ZmDOFs were obviously upregulated under NO^-₃ (>5 fold) or NH⁺₄ (>2 fold) depletion treatment, respectively. ZmbDOF12，ZmbDOF27 and ZmbDOF42 were upregulated by > 10fold under NO^-₃ depletion treatment, indicating these genes involved in the regulation of nitrate nitrogen stress response pathway. 5 ZmDOFs and 8 ZmDOFs were obviously induced under NaCl (>2 fold) or osmotic (>2 fold) stresses, respectively, indicating the important and distinct roles of ZmDOFs in response to abiotic stress. These finding provide valuable information for further studies of ZmDOF genes in maize.