The effects of parentals drought hardening on physiological characteristics and DNA methylation in maize were studied. Maize B73 and H99 selfbred offspring (G₁ generation) were used as materials which parents (G₀ generation) were trained by drought. The relative water content (RWC), the contents of malondialdehyde(MDA), soluble sugar, proline and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) in leaves of G₁ and G₀ generations were measured by using 20% PEG6000 to simulate drought condition, and the methylation status of genome in G₀ and G₁ generations was detected by amplified fragment length polymorphism (MSAP) technique, and the variation of physiological indexes and genomic DNA methylation modification in two generations of maize were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) under the same drought treatment, the RWC, soluble sugar and proline contents, the SOD and POD activities of B73 and H99 in G₁ generation were higher than those in G₀ generation, the MDA content in G₁ generation was lower than that in G0 generation, the RWC reduction and MDA increase in G₁ generation were lower than those in G₀ generation, and the increase of soluble sugar and proline contents, SOD and POD activities in G₁ generation were higher than those in G₀ generation. (2) The DNA methylation levels and patterns in two generations of B73 and H99 were changed which caused by drought stress. Under the same drought stress, the changes of DNA methylation in G₁ generation were greater than that in G₀ generation. (3) The variations of DNA methylation in B73 and H99 were different. The methylation level of CG and CHG in B73 2 generations and the methylation level of CG in H99 2 generations were increased, and the methylation level of CHG were decreased. The variations of CG hypo and CHG hypo were dominant in B73 and CHG hypo and CG hyper were dominant in H99. The abilities of antioxidation, osmotic adjustment and the changes of DNA methylation in G₁ generation of B73 and H99 were higher than that in G₀ generation, and the drought resistance in G₁ generation was higher than that in G₀ generation. These results showed that there was transgenerational drought stress imprint in maize.