Fuente: WIPO "tobacco agriculture" The invention discloses a drought response gene NtXERICO of tobacco, and a cloning method and an application thereof. A nucleotide sequence of the drought response gene NtXERICO of tobacco is as shown in SEQ ID NO: 1. An amino acid sequence of an encoding protein is as shown in SEQ ID NO: 2. Adaptation of the tobacco to drought stress can be improved by over-expressing the gene. The NtXERICO has a wide application prospect in the drought resistance field of tobacco. According to the application of the gene provided by the invention, the ubiquitin E3 ligase encoding gene NtXERICO is inducibly expressed in tobacco seedling leaves subjected to drought treatment. The protein NtXERICO provided by the invention is a key enzyme in degradation processes of ubiquitination proteins of plants, so that drought resistance of plants can be regulated by controlling the expression of the NtXERICO. Therefore, the drought response gene NtXERICO has the wide application prospect in the drought resistance field of plants, and also has huge economic potential.