Lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) and plant defensins are small, basic and cysteine rich antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that are considered to be part of defense arsenal of plants against bacterial and mainly fungal pathogens. Our group has previously cloned and sequenced a defensin and a LTP from cowpea seeds. The aim of this work was to use the cDNA encoding the tow peptides, marked with ³²P, as probes to study the expression profile of their genes in cowpea under different conditions by Northern blot. Total RNA from cowpea tissues were extracted in buffer contained 0.2 M Tris-HCl pH 7.5, 0.1 M LiCl, 5 mM EDTA and 1% SDS followed by a conventional phenol extraction method and then DNA was separated by LiCl precipitation. Probe was labeled by radon primer technique (T₇ Quik Primer Kit, GE Healthcare) using [α-³²P]dCTP (30 mCi.mmol^-1, GE Healthcare) according to instruction manual. Hybridization of ³²P-labed specific probes was carried out after electrophoresis and transference of 10 µg of total RNA to Hybond-N⁺ membranes (GE Healthcare) following standards procedures. The expression profile of the VULTP and VUDEF gene revealed that the transcripts of both genes are not accumulated in adult tissues from cowpea. Conversely, mRNAs from both genes are strongly accumulated during cowpea seed development. In seedling tissues, VULTP level decreases in leaves after exposure to the fungal pathogen and cold and in cotyledons its levels decreased after exposure to the fungal pathogen and increased after exposure to cold. The VUDEF transcript levels increased slightly after seeding exposure to fungal pathogen and cold. These results demonstrate that the VULTP and VUDEF present differential expression in response to the different stress. Further studies will be conducted to try to gain better understanding about the physiological role of these genes in cowpea.