The Zea mays (maize) crop is essential to global agriculture and food security, and is also vital to the US economy. Like many crop plants, maize is often subjected to extreme environmental stresses, such as drought, extreme cold and high salinity, that negatively impact crop yield. Therefore, it is important to characterize the molecular (epigenetic) changes that occur to a gene under environmental stress conditions in order to manipulate these responses to improve crop yield under stress. We are interested in characterizing the epigenetic regulation of stress-responsive transcription factors under normal (control) and abiotic stress (drought) conditions in maize seedlings. Using bisulfite conversion of genomic DNA, we previously identified that the Zea mays basic transcription factor 3 (ZmBTF3) gene displays some variations in methylation patterns in parts of the gene promoter between the two treatments. To confirm these results, we used an alternative method: a methylation sensitive restriction digest technique, which uses methylation sensitive restriction enzymes (MSREs) that cut DNA molecules at precise locations and are sensitive to DNA methylation. Our results show some treatment (control vs. drought) and restriction enzyme (sequence/context) specific methylation patterns. Using these two independent techniques, we identify stress-responsive epigenetic variations (DNA methylation) in the promoter region of the ZmBTF3 gene, previously uncharacterized in maize. Ongoing research includes (i) characterizing the sequence contexts of these methylation patterns between the two treatments, (ii) determining if the observed DNA methylation changes correlate with transcription of the ZmBTF3 gene, and (iii) characterizing the drought response phenotype in maize plants with a mutation in the ZmBTF3 gene. This study will help us gain a better understanding of how the BTF3 gene in maize is regulated through epigenetic modifications.