Drought stress can provoke membrane damages due to free radicals and lipolytic enzymes activation. The major chloroplast lipid monogalactosyl- diacylglycerol (MGDG), accounting up to 50% of chloroplast lipids is the most affected by the deleterious effects of drought stress. The ability to synthesize chloroplast lipids on rehydration is very important for plant recovery after drought. The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of rehydration after water stress on the chloroplast lipid MGDG metabolism of Phaseolus vulgaris cv Carioca. P. vulgaris plants were grown in controlled light and temperature conditions, drought stress was applied to 3-week-old plants. When plants reached a moderate water potential of –1.5MPa, they were subsequently rewatered and the leaves were collected after 3, 6, 10, 24 and 48h. Levels of MGDG synthase gene (MGD1) expression were assessed by RT-PCR. The biosynthesis in vivo was investigated by labeling leaves with radioactive precursors for MGDG biosynthesis. The lipid classes were separated by TLC, MGDG band was scraped off and the radioactivity of the sample was measured by liquid scintillation. The water status of plant leaves was quickly restored after the rewatering and rose from RWC of 53% in droughted plants to RWC of 87% in 3h rewatered plants. Water stress inhibited the expression of MGD1, meanwhile, rehydration induced early recovery of gene expression starting 1h after rewatering, showing maximum expression after 10h, returning to basis level after 48h. Relative radioactivity incorporation in MGDG showed a decrease of 52% in droughted plants, and in 10h-rewatered plants this incorporation reached 92,5% of the amount  incorporated in control plants. Despite its relative drought-susceptibility compared to other bean species, our results showed that P. vulgaris is able to revert the decrease in MGDG synthesis provoked by drought stress. For this reason, the ability to reactivate the MGDG synthesis suggests a key and essential role of MGDG for the recovery after drought.