Sugarcane is an important crop for sugar and ethanol production, a renewable and less polluting biofuel. Water deficit is one of the main cause of losses in crop species like sugarcane. The development of new cultivars combining tools of classical breeding and biotechnology emerges as a promising alternative to increase the productivity of sugarcane. To cope with water deficit, plants activate the production of several proteins, such as D’ proteins. These proteins (also called J-domain proteins) are conserved co-chaperones that regulate HSP70 proteins (Caplan et al., 1993). The overexpression of tobacco D’ protein in Arabidopsis increased the transcription of genes involved in the detoxification to reactive oxygen species (Xia et al., 2014). Additionally, this protein may participate in water deficit stress by acting in ABA dependent signaling pathways. We have evaluated the expression of a sugarcane D’ protein in transgenic sugarcane plants. Total RNA was extracted from in vitro transgenic plants overexpressing D’ transgene and from plants transformed with an empty vector (negative control). RT-qPCR data showed that several plants presented increased levels of transgene expression compared to empty vector plants. For future analysis we will choose the 4 events with higher expression levels to compare with empty vector plants to assess their responses to water deficit.