For temperate areas, sources of drought tolerance can be found in tropical and sub-tropical breeding populations such as those developed by CIMMYT and other institutes in tropical areas. Their use in temperate germplasm needs their adaptation to climatic conditions, either by backcrossing or by selection. In 2008, we introduced 13 drought tolerant maize populations from Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) and Kenya (KARI). Based on a first evaluation of these populations, we chose four populations (DLCI, and Kikamba from KARI; ZM309 and ZM521 from CIMMYT) to be selected by mass selection in Mauguio (Mediterranean area). The mass selection was applied on early flowering date, short anthesis-silking interval, low smut, ear size. The selection intensities were 20% on the first cycle (200 full-sib ears on 1000 plants), and 5% on the second and third cycles (200 half-sib ears on 4000 plants in isolation field under low-irrigated condition). In 2014, the three cycles of selection of populations were evaluated in Mauguio under optimal conditions. The populations of the third cycles were 3.5 to 5.5 days early than populations of the first cycle, and ASI was reduced up to 8.5 days. Two bulked DNA samples of 100 plants of the first and the third cycle of each population were analyzed with the 50K SNP array. Allelic frequencies were estimated using the method developed by A. Charcosset team (Arca et al., in prep). We searched SNP under selection by analysis of variance and by the Fc parameter method (Goldringer and Bataillon, 2004). Around 5% of SNP were under selection. Among them, the four SNP, more frequent over populations, were located on chromosome 10 (bin 10.4) near the QTL of photoperiod found by Ducrocq et al. (2009). Assuming we have not lost drought tolerant alleles, the advanced cycles of populations are available for pre breeding.