Abstract: 【Objective】 Abiotic stresses are major factors which significantly affecting the growth and yield of crop plants. In this study, the objective is to characterize a dehydrin gene and its response to abiotic stresses, such as drought, high-salt, cold and heat. The biological functions of the dehydrin gene during the stress tolerance of wheat plant were also discussed, which would provide important information for the application of the dehydrin gene in wheat molecular breeding focused on the improvement of stress tolerance.【Method】RT-PCR technology was used in cDNA cloning of TaDHN-1 and proper bioinformatic methods were applied for characterizing the dehydrin gene and its deduced protein. The gene expression patterns were analyzed by using the real time qRT-PCR. 【Result】A wheat dehydrin gene TaDHN-1 was cloned and sequencing analysis showed that the cDNA of the dehydrin gene is 487 bp in length, and encodes 112 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of about 11.5 kD and pI of 6.6. Amino acid sequence analysis indicated that the TaDHD-1 included a conserved C-terminal K-segment and was sorted into Kn subfamily of dehydrins. Protein structural analysis demonstrated that the region of loops accounted for 82.1% of the whole protein and this feature was related to the higher hydrophilia of the dehydrin. PredictProtein analysis showed that no transmemberane region was detected in TaDHN-1 and it was located in cytoplasm. The expression analysis revealed that TaDHN-1 was induced by plant hormone ABA, as well as by drought-, salt- and chilling- stresses, while insensitive to the heat stress in wheat plants. Interestingly, the expression level of TaDHN-1 was gradually decreased with the development of wheat kernels and the expression was very weak at later period of seed maturation, which indicated that TaDHN-1 was not involved in the dehydration protection during the maturation of wheat seeds. 【Conclusion】 The wheat dehydrin gene TaDHN-1 belongs to the Kn subclass of plant dehydrin family, and it was involved in the ABA dependent stress-responding pathway. It was deduced that TaDHN-1 plays important roles during the stress tolerance of drought, high-salt and cold, while is insensitive to heat stress and not involved in the dehydration protection during the maturation of wheat seeds.