Generation of plants with improved pathogen resistance and drought tolerance

Abstract

The present invention is directed to plants that display a pathogen resistance and increased drought tolerance phenotype due to altered expression of a PRDT1 nucleic acid. The invention is further directed to methods of generating plants with a pathogen resistance and increased drought tolerance phenotype.

It is claimed:  
     
         1 . A transgenic plant comprising a plant transformation vector comprising a nucleotide sequence that encodes or is complementary to a sequence that encodes a PRDT1 polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, or an ortholog thereof, wherein said transgenic plant has increased resistance to pathogens and/or increased drought tolerance relative to control plants.  
     
     
         2 . The transgenic plant of  claim 1  wherein the transformation vector comprises a constitutive promoter that controls expression of the PRDT1 polypeptide or ortholog.  
     
     
         3 . The transgenic plant of  claim 1  wherein the transformation vector comprises a pathogen-inducible promoter that controls expression of the PRDT1 polypeptide or ortholog.  
     
     
         4 . The transgenic plant of  claim 1  which encodes a PRDT1 ortholog comprising an amino acid sequence selected from any one of SEQ ID NOs:3-17.  
     
     
         5 . A method of producing increased pathogen resistance in a plant, said method comprising: 
 a) introducing into progenitor cells of the plant a plant transformation vector comprising a nucleotide sequence that encodes or is complementary to a sequence that encodes a PRDT1 polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, or an ortholog thereof, and    b) growing the transformed progenitor cells to produce a transgenic plant, wherein said polynucleotide sequence is expressed, and said transgenic plant exhibits increased resistance to pathogens relative to control plants.    
     
     
         6 . A plant obtained by a method of  claim 5 .  
     
     
         7 . A plant part obtained from a plant according to  claim 6 .  
     
     
         8 . A method of generating a plant having an increased pathogen resistance and/or drought tolerance phenotype comprising identifying a plant that has an allele in its PRDT1 gene that results in increased pathogen resistance and/or drought tolerance compared to plants lacking the allele and generating progeny of said identified plant, wherein the generated progeny inherit the allele and have the increased pathogen resistance phenotype.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  that employs candidate gene/QTL methodology.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8  that employs TILLING methodology.