Drought-Tolerance in Plants

Abstract

Drought-inducible plant promoters are described herein that are useful for expressing drought tolerance factors in plants.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A plant comprising a promoter operably linked to a heterologous nucleic acid segment, where the promoter comprises a promoter sequence with insertions of (a) one or more drought response elements, each with sequence TACCGACAT, and (b) one or more ABA response elements, each with sequence ACACGTGT, into a sequence with at least 98% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1-10 or 12. 
     
     
         3 . The plant of  claim 1 , wherein the heterologous nucleic acid segment comprises at least one translational initiation region, at least one multi-cloning site, at least one plant transcriptional termination sequence, at least one plant translational termination sequence, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         4 . The plant of  claim 1 , wherein the plant comprises an expression cassette, or an expression vector, comprising the promoter operably linked to the heterologous nucleic acid segment. 
     
     
         5 . The plant of  claim 1 , wherein the heterologous nucleic acid segment comprises a coding region that encodes a drought tolerance factor. 
     
     
         6 . The plant of  claim 5 , wherein the drought tolerance factor comprises a sequence with at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:14, 16, or 18. 
     
     
         7 . The plant of  claim 5 , wherein the drought tolerance factor comprises coding region that has at least 95% nucleotide sequence identity to SEQ NO:13, 15, or 17. 
     
     
         8 . The plant of  claim 5 , wherein the heterologous nucleic acid comprises at least one coding region that encodes a drought tolerance factor with at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 16, and wherein the plant loses over 8 hours of drought conditions at least about 5% less water than a plant that does not have the heterologous nucleic acid that encodes a drought tolerance factor. 
     
     
         9 . The plant of  claim 1 , wherein the plant is a monocot, dicot, or gymnosperm. 
     
     
         10 . The plant of  claim 1 , wherein the plant is a plant crop species. 
     
     
         11 . A plant seed, a plant cell or plant tissue comprising a promoter operably inked to a heterologous nucleic acid segment, where the promoter comprises a promoter sequence with insertions of (a) one or more drought response elements, each with sequence TACCGACAT, and (b) one or more ABA response elements, each with sequence ACACGTGT, into a sequence with at least 98% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1-10 or 12. 
     
     
         12 . The plant seed, a plant cell or plant tissue of  claim 11 , wherein the heterologous nucleic acid segment comprises a coding region that encodes drought tolerance factor. 
     
     
         13 . The plant seed, a plant cell or plant tissue of  claim 12 , wherein the drought tolerance factor comprising at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 14, 16, and 18. 
     
     
         14 . The plant seed, a plant cell or plant tissue of  claim 12 , wherein the drought tolerance factor comprises a coding region has at least 95% nucleotide sequence identity to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 13, 15, and 17. 
     
     
         15 . A method of producing a drought tolerant plant comprising expressing a drought tolerance factor from an expression cassette comprising a nucleic acid segment encoding the drought tolerance factor operably linked to a promoter that comprises a promoter sequence with insertions of (a) one or more drought response elements, each with sequence TACCGACAT, and (b) one or more ABA response elements, each with sequence ACACGTGT, into a sequence with at least 98% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1-10 or 12. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising (a) transforming one or more plant cells with the expression cassette, and (b) generating a plant from the one or more plant cells. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the drought tolerance factor has a sequence comprising at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:14, 16, or 18. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the plant expresses a drought tolerance factor from a coding region comprising at least 95% nucleotide sequence identity to any of SEQ ID NO:13, 15, or 17. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein is a monocot, dicot, or gymnosperm. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the plant is a crop species. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the plant is a food crop species, a legume species, a fiber-containing plant species, a tree species, flax, a grain species, a grass species, a woody plant species, a softwood, a hardwood, an oil producing plant species, a starch producing plant species, or a forage plant species.