WO2011061656A1 - Plants with increased yield - Google Patents

Plants with increased yield Download PDF

Info

Publication number
WO2011061656A1
WO2011061656A1 PCT/IB2010/055028 IB2010055028W WO2011061656A1 WO 2011061656 A1 WO2011061656 A1 WO 2011061656A1 IB 2010055028 W IB2010055028 W IB 2010055028W WO 2011061656 A1 WO2011061656 A1 WO 2011061656A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
nucleic acid
protein
acid molecule
polypeptide
plant
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/IB2010/055028
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Hardy Schön
Oliver Thimm
Gerhard Ritte
Oliver BLÄSING
Stefan Henkes
Koen Bruynseels
Yves Hatzfeld
Valerie Frankard
Ana Isabel Sanz Molinero
Christophe Reuzeau
Steven Vandenabeele
Bryan Mckersie
Kolliparra Krishna
Christian Dammann
Original Assignee
Basf Plant Science Company Gmbh
Basf (China) Company Limited
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Basf Plant Science Company Gmbh, Basf (China) Company Limited filed Critical Basf Plant Science Company Gmbh
Priority to BR112012011641A priority Critical patent/BR112012011641A2/en
Priority to AU2010320547A priority patent/AU2010320547B2/en
Priority to CN2010800615843A priority patent/CN102770543A/en
Priority to DE112010004469T priority patent/DE112010004469T5/en
Priority to MX2012005719A priority patent/MX2012005719A/en
Priority to US13/510,220 priority patent/US20120227134A1/en
Priority to EP10831238.0A priority patent/EP2501816A4/en
Priority to CA2780707A priority patent/CA2780707A1/en
Publication of WO2011061656A1 publication Critical patent/WO2011061656A1/en

Links

Classifications

    • CCHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C12BIOCHEMISTRY; BEER; SPIRITS; WINE; VINEGAR; MICROBIOLOGY; ENZYMOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING
    • C12NMICROORGANISMS OR ENZYMES; COMPOSITIONS THEREOF; PROPAGATING, PRESERVING, OR MAINTAINING MICROORGANISMS; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; CULTURE MEDIA
    • C12N15/00Mutation or genetic engineering; DNA or RNA concerning genetic engineering, vectors, e.g. plasmids, or their isolation, preparation or purification; Use of hosts therefor
    • C12N15/09Recombinant DNA-technology
    • C12N15/63Introduction of foreign genetic material using vectors; Vectors; Use of hosts therefor; Regulation of expression
    • C12N15/79Vectors or expression systems specially adapted for eukaryotic hosts
    • C12N15/82Vectors or expression systems specially adapted for eukaryotic hosts for plant cells, e.g. plant artificial chromosomes (PACs)
    • C12N15/8241Phenotypically and genetically modified plants via recombinant DNA technology
    • C12N15/8261Phenotypically and genetically modified plants via recombinant DNA technology with agronomic (input) traits, e.g. crop yield
    • CCHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C07ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
    • C07KPEPTIDES
    • C07K14/00Peptides having more than 20 amino acids; Gastrins; Somatostatins; Melanotropins; Derivatives thereof
    • C07K14/415Peptides having more than 20 amino acids; Gastrins; Somatostatins; Melanotropins; Derivatives thereof from plants
    • YGENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02ATECHNOLOGIES FOR ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02A40/00Adaptation technologies in agriculture, forestry, livestock or agroalimentary production
    • Y02A40/10Adaptation technologies in agriculture, forestry, livestock or agroalimentary production in agriculture
    • Y02A40/146Genetically Modified [GMO] plants, e.g. transgenic plants

Definitions

  • the invention disclosed herein provides a method for producing a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding wild type plant comprising increasing or generating one or more activities in a plant or a part thereof.
  • the present invention further relates to nucleic acids enhancing or improving one or more traits of a transgenic plant, and cells, progenies, seeds and pollen derived from such plants or parts, as well as methods of making and methods of using such plant cell(s) or plant(s), progenies, seed(s) or pollen.
  • said improved trait(s) are manifested in an increased yield, preferably by im- proving one or more yield-related trait(s).
  • plant performance under field conditions, plant performance, for example in terms of growth, development, biomass accumulation and seed generation, depends on a plant's tolerance and acclimation ability to numerous environmental conditions, changes and stresses. Since the beginning of agriculture and horticulture, there was a need for improving plant traits in crop cultivation. Breeding strategies foster crop properties to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses, to improve nutrient use efficiency and to alter other intrinsic crop specific yield parameters, i.e. increasing yield by applying technical advances. Plants are sessile organ- isms and consequently need to cope with various environmental stresses. Biotic stresses such as plant pests and pathogens on the one hand, and abiotic environmental stresses on the other hand are major limiting factors for plant growth and productivity, thereby limiting plant cultivation and geographical distribution. Plants exposed to different stresses typically have low yields of plant material, like seeds, fruit or other produces. Crop losses and crop yield losses caused by abiotic and biotic stresses represent a significant economic and political factor and contribute to food shortages, particularly in many underdeveloped countries.
  • Agricultural biotechnologists use measurements of other parameters that indicate the potential impact of a transgene on crop yield.
  • the plant biomass correlates with the total yield.
  • other parameters have been used to estimate yield, such as plant size, as measured by total plant dry weight, above-ground dry weight, above-ground fresh weight, leaf area, stem volume, plant height, rosette diameter, leaf length, root length, root mass, tiller number, and leaf number.
  • Plant size at an early developmental stage will typically correlate with plant size later in development. A larger plant with a greater leaf area can typically absorb more light and carbon dioxide than a smaller plant and therefore will likely gain a greater weight during the same period.
  • Plants that exhibit tolerance of one abiotic stress often exhibit tolerance of another environmental stress. This phenomenon of cross-tolerance is not understood at a mechanistic level. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to expect that plants exhibiting enhanced tolerance to low temperature, e.g. chilling temperatures and/or freezing temperatures, due to the expression of a transgene may also exhibit tolerance to drought and/or salt and/or other abiotic stresses..
  • the present invention provides a method for producing a plant having an increased yield as compared to a corresponding wild type plant whereby the method comprises at least the following step: increasing or generating in a plant one or more activities of a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2- oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'- phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argo- naute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein,
  • the invention provides a transgenic plant that over-expresses an isolated polynucleotide as identified in Table I, or a homolog thereof, in the sub-cellular compartment and tissue as indicated herein.
  • the transgenic plant of the invention demon- strates an improved or increased harvestable yield as compared to a wild type variety of the plant.
  • the invention provides a method for producing a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding wild type plant comprising at least one of the steps selected from the group consisting of: (i) increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising at least one polypeptide motif or consensus sequence as depicted in column 5 or 7 of Table II or of Table IV, respectively; or (ii) increasing or generating the activity of an expression product of one or more isolated polynucleotide(s) comprising one or more polynucleotide(s) as depicted in column 5 or 7 of Table I.
  • the invention further provides a method for increasing yield of a crop plant, the method comprising the following steps:(i) increasing or generating of the expression of at least one polynucleotide; and/or (ii) increasing or generating the expression of an expression product encoded by at least one polynucleotide; and/or (iii) increasing or generating one or more activities of an expression product encoded by at least one polynucleotide, wherein the polynucleotide is selected from the group consisting of:
  • an isolated polynucleotide which, as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be derived from a polypeptide sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof ;
  • an isolated polynucleotide having 30 or more, for example 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% (percent) or more identity with the sequence of a polynucleotide shown in column 5 or 7 of table I and conferring an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
  • an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having 30 or more, for example 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or more identity with the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the isolated polynucleotide of (a) to (c) and having the activity represented by a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I and conferring an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
  • the invention relates to a method for producing a transgenic plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant, comprising transforming a plant cell or a plant cell nucleus or a plant tissue to produce such a plant, with an isolated polynucleotide selected from the group consisting of:
  • an isolated polynucleotide which, as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be derived from a polypeptide sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof ;
  • an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having 30% or more, for example 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or more identity with the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the isolated polynucleotide of (a) to (c) and having the activity represented by a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
  • a number of yield-related phenotypes are associated with yield of plants.
  • the genes identified in Table 1 , or homologs thereof may be employed to enhance any yield-related phenotype. Increased yield may be deter- mined in field trials of transgenic plants and suitable control plants. Alternatively, a trans- gene's ability to increase yield may be determined in a model plant.
  • An increased yield phenotype may be determined in the field test or in a model plant by measuring any one or any combination of the following phenotypes, in comparison to a control plant: yield of dry harvestable parts of the plant, yield of dry aerial harvestable parts of the plant, yield of un- derground dry harvestable parts of the plant, yield of fresh weight harvestable parts of the plant, yield of aerial fresh weight harvestable parts of the plant yield of underground fresh weight harvestable parts of the plant, yield of the plant's fruit (both fresh and dried), grain dry weight, yield of seeds (both fresh and dry), and the like.
  • the most basic yield-related phenotype is increased yield associated with the presence of the gene or a homolog thereof as a transgene in the plant, i.e., the intrinsic yield of the plant.
  • Intrinsic yield capacity of a plant can be, for example, manifested in a field test or in a model system by demonstrating an improvement of seed yield (e.g.
  • Increased yield-related phenotypes may also be measured to determine tolerance to abiotic environmental stress.
  • Abiotic stresses include drought, low temperature, salinity, osmotic stress, shade, high plant density, mechanical stresses, and oxidative stress, and yield-related phenotypes are encompassed by tolerance to such abiotic stresses.
  • Additional phenotypes that can be monitored to determine enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress include, without limitation, wilting; leaf browning; loss of turgor, which results in drooping of leaves or needles stems, and flowers; drooping and/or shed- ding of leaves or needles; the leaves are green but leaf angled slightly toward the ground compared with controls; leaf blades begun to fold (curl) inward; premature senescence of leaves or needles; loss of chlorophyll in leaves or needles and/or yellowing.
  • Any of the yield-related phenotypes described above may be monitored in field tests or in model plants to demonstrate that a transgenic plant has increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress.
  • the genes identified in Table 1 , or homologs thereof may be employed to enhance tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in a plant means that the plant, when confronted with abiotic environmental stress.
  • An “yield-increasing activity” refers to an activity selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl- D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01.1 -protein, 60952769.
  • a polypeptide conferring a yield-increasing activity can be encoded by a nucleic acid sequence as shown in table I, column 5 or 7, and/or comprises or consists of a polypeptide as depicted in table II, column 5 and 7, and/or can be amplified with the primer set shown in table III, column 7.
  • a "transgenic plant”, as used herein, refers to a plant which contains a foreign nucleotide sequence inserted into either its nuclear genome or organelle genome. It encompasses further the offspring generations i.e. the T1 -, T2- and consecutively generations or BC1 -, BC2- and consecutively generation as well as crossbreeds thereof with non- transgenic or other transgenic plants.
  • a modification i.e. an increase
  • an increase in activity in an organism or a part thereof can be caused by adding a gene product or a precursor or an activator or an agonist to the media or nutrition or can be caused by introducing said subjects into a organism, transient or stable.
  • an increase can be reached by the introduction of the inventive nucleic acid sequence or the encoded protein in the correct cell compartment for example into the nu- cleus or cytoplasmic respectively or into plastids either by transformation and/or targeting.
  • cytoplasmic and “non-targeted” shall indicate, that the nucleic acid of the invention is expressed without the addition of a non-natural transit peptide encoding sequence.
  • a non- natural transit peptide encoding sequence is a sequence which is not a natural part of a nucleic acid of the invention, e.g. of the nucleic acids depicted in table I column 5 or 7, but is rather added by molecular manipulation steps as for example described in the example under "plastid targeted expression".
  • cytoplasmic and non-targeted shall not exclude a targeted localization to any cell compartment for the products of the inventive nucleic acid sequences by their naturally occurring sequence properties within the background of the transgenic organism.
  • the sub-cellular location of the mature polypeptide derived from the enclosed sequences can be predicted by a skilled person for the organism (plant) by using software tools like TargetP (Emanuelsson et al., (2000), Predicting subcellular localization of proteins based on their N-terminal amino acid sequence., J.Mol. Biol. 300, 1005-1016.), ChloroP (Emanuelsson et al.
  • ChloroP a neural network-based method for predicting chloroplast transit peptides and their cleavage sites.
  • Protein Science, 8: 978-984. or other predictive software tools (Emanuelsson et al. (2007), Locating proteins in the cell using TargetP, SignalP, and related tools., Nature Protocols 2, 953-971 ).
  • organelle shall mean for example "mitochondria” or "plastid".
  • plastid according to the invention are intended to include various forms of plastids including proplastids, chloroplasts, chromoplasts, gerontoplasts, leucoplasts, amyloplasts, elaioplasts and etioplasts, preferably chloroplasts. They all have as a common ancestor the aforementioned proplasts.
  • the term "introduced” in the context of this specification shall mean the insertion of a nucleic acid sequence into the organism by means of a “transfection”, “transduction” or preferably by “transformation”.
  • a plastid such as a chloroplast
  • a plastid has been "transformed” by an exogenous (preferably foreign) nucleic acid sequence if nucleic acid sequence has been introduced into the plastid that means that this sequence has crossed the membrane or the membranes of the plastid.
  • the foreign DNA may be integrated (covalently linked) into plastid DNA making up the genome of the plastid, or it may remain not integrated (e.g., by including a chloroplast origin of replication).
  • "Stably" integrated DNA sequences are those, which are inherited through plastid replication, thereby transferring new plastids, with the features of the inte- grated DNA sequence to the progeny.
  • plant is meant to include not only a whole plant but also a part thereof i.e., one or more cells, and tissues, including for example, leaves, stems, shoots, roots, flowers, fruits and seeds.
  • yield generally refers to a measurable produce from a plant, particularly a crop. Yield and yield increase (in comparison to a n on -transformed starting or wild-type plant) can be measured in a number of ways, and it is understood that a skilled person will be able to apply the correct meaning in view of the particular embodiments, the particular crop concerned and the specific purpose or application concerned.
  • improved yield or “increased yield” can be used interchangeable.
  • the term “improved yield” or the term “increased yield” means any improvement in the yield of any measured plant product, such as grain, fruit or fiber.
  • changes in different phenotypic traits may improve yield.
  • parameters such as floral organ development, root initiation, root biomass, seed number, seed weight, harvest index, tolerance to abiotic envi- ronmental stress, leaf formation, phototropism, apical dominance, and fruit development, are suitable measurements of improved yield.
  • Increased yield includes higher fruit yields, higher seed yields, higher fresh matter production, and/or higher dry matter production.
  • any increase in yield is an improved yield in accordance with the invention.
  • the improvement in yield can comprise a 0.1 %, 0.5%, 1 %, 3%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% or greater increase in any measured parameter.
  • an increase in the bu/acre yield of soybeans or corn derived from a crop comprising plants which are transgenic for the nucleotides and polypeptides of Table I, as compared with the bu/acre yield from untreated soybeans or corn cultivated under the same conditions is an improved yield in accordance with the invention.
  • the increased or im- proved yield can be achieved in the absence or presence of stress conditions.
  • yield refers to one or more yield parameters selected from the group consisting of biomass yield, dry biomass yield, aerial dry biomass yield, underground dry biomass yield, fresh-weight biomass yield, aerial fresh-weight biomass yield, underground fresh-weight biomass yield; enhanced yield of harvestable parts, either dry or fresh-weight or both, either aerial or underground or both; enhanced yield of crop fruit, either dry or fresh-weight or both, either aerial or underground or both; and preferably enhanced yield of seeds, either dry or fresh-weight or both, either aerial or underground or both.
  • Crop yield is defined herein as the number of bushels of relevant agricultural product (such as grain, forage, or seed) harvested per acre. Crop yield is impacted by abiotic stresses, such as drought, heat, salinity, and cold stress, and by the size (biomass) of the plant.
  • the yield of a plant can depend on the specific plant/ crop of interest as well as its intended application (such as food production, feed production, processed food production, bio-fuel, biogas or alcohol production, or the like) of interest in each particular case.
  • yield can be calculated as harvest index (expressed as a ratio of the weight of the respective harvestable parts divided by the total biomass), harvestable parts weight per area (acre, square meter, or the like); and the like.
  • the harvest index is the ratio of yield biomass to the total cumulative biomass at harvest.
  • Harvest index is relatively stable under many environmental conditions, and so a robust correlation between plant size and grain yield is possible.
  • measurements of plant size in early development, under standardized conditions in a growth chamber or greenhouse are standard practices to measure potential yield advantages conferred by the presence of a transgene.
  • the yield of a plant can be increased by improving one or more of the yield-related phenotypes or traits.
  • Such yield-related phenotypes or traits of a plant the improvement of which re- suits in increased yield comprise, without limitation, the increase of the intrinsic yield capacity of a plant, improved nutrient use efficiency, and/or increased stress tolerance.
  • yield refers to biomass yield, e.g. to dry weight biomass yield and/or fresh-weight biomass yield.
  • Biomass yield refers to the aerial or underground parts of a plant, depending on the specific circumstances (test conditions, specific crop of inter- est, application of interest, and the like). In one embodiment, biomass yield refers to the aerial and underground parts. Biomass yield may be calculated as fresh-weight, dry weight or a moisture adjusted basis. Biomass yield may be calculated on a per plant basis or in relation to a specific area (e.g. biomass yield per acre/ square meter/ or the like).
  • Yield can also refer to seed yield which can be measured by one or more of the following parameters: number of seeds or number of filled seeds (per plant or per area (acre/ square meter/ or the like)); seed filling rate (ratio between number of filled seeds and total number of seeds); number of flowers per plant; seed biomass or total seeds weight (per plant or per area (acre/square meter/ or the like); thousand kernel weight (TKW; extrapolated from the number of filled seeds counted and their total weight; an increase in TKW may be caused by an increased seed size, an increased seed weight, an increased embryo size, and/or an increased endosperm). Other parameters allowing to measure seed yield are also known in the art. Seed yield may be determined on a dry weight or on a fresh weight basis, or typically on a moisture adjusted basis, e.g. at 15.5 percent moisture.
  • the term "increased yield” means that the a plant, exhibits an in- creased growth rate, e.g. in the absence or presence of abiotic environmental stress, compared to the corresponding wild-type plant.
  • An increased growth rate may be reflected inter alia by or confers an increased biomass production of the whole plant, or an increased biomass production of the aerial parts of a plant, or by an increased biomass production of the underground parts of a plant, or by an increased biomass production of parts of a plant, like stems, leaves, blossoms, fruits, and/or seeds.
  • a prolonged growth comprises survival and/or continued growth of the plant, at the moment when the non -transformed wild type organism shows visual symptoms of deficiency and/or death.
  • increased yield for corn plants means, for example, increased seed yield, in particular for corn varieties used for feed or food.
  • Increased seed yield of corn refers to an increased kernel size or weight, an increased kernel per ear, or increased ears per plant.
  • the cob yield may be increased, or the length or size of the cob is increased, or the kernel per cob ratio is improved.
  • increased yield for soy plants means increased seed yield, in particular for soy varieties used for feed or food.
  • Increased seed yield of soy refers for example to an increased kernel size or weight, an increased kernel per pod, or increased pods per plant.
  • increased yield for OSR plants means increased seed yield, in particular for OSR varieties used for feed or food.
  • Increased seed yield of OSR refers to an increased seed size or weight, an increased seed number per silique, or increased siliques per plant.
  • Increased yield for cotton plants means increased lint yield.
  • Increased lint yield of cotton refers in one embodiment to an increased length of lint.
  • Said increased yield can typically be achieved by enhancing or improving, one or more yield-related traits of the plant.
  • yield-related traits of a plant comprise, without limitation, the increase of the intrinsic yield capacity of a plant, improved nutrient use efficiency, and/or increased stress tolerance, in particular increased abiotic stress tolerance.
  • Intrinsic yield capacity of a plant can be, for example, manifested by improving the specific (intrinsic) seed yield (e.g. in terms of increased seed/ grain size, increased ear number, increased seed number per ear, improvement of seed filling, improvement of seed composition, embryo and/or endosperm improvements, or the like); modification and improvement of inherent growth and development mechanisms of a plant (such as plant height, plant growth rate, pod number, pod position on the plant, number of internodes, incidence of pod shatter, efficiency of nodulation and nitrogen fixation, efficiency of carbon assimilation, improvement of seedling vigour/early vigour, enhanced efficiency of germination (under stressed or non-stressed conditions), improvement in plant architecture, cell cycle modifications, photosynthesis modifications, various signaling pathway modifications, modification of transcriptional regulation, modification of translational regulation, modification of enzyme activities, and the like); and/or the like.
  • specific (intrinsic) seed yield e.g. in terms of increased seed/ grain size, increased ear number, increased seed
  • abiotic stress refers generally to abiotic environmental conditions a plant is typically confronted with, including, but not limited to, drought (toler- ance to drought may be achieved as a result of improved water use efficiency), heat, low temperatures and cold conditions (such as freezing and chilling conditions), salinity, osmotic stress, shade, high plant density, mechanical stress, oxidative stress, and the like.
  • the increased plant yield can also be mediated by increasing the "nutrient use efficiency of a plant", e.g. by improving the use efficiency of nutrients including, but not limited to, phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen. Further, higher yields may be obtained with current or standard levels of nitrogen use
  • the term “increased tolerance to stress” can be defined as survival of plants, and/or higher yield production, under stress conditions as compared to a non- transformed wild type or starting plant: For example, the plant of the invention or produced according to the method of the invention is better adapted to the stress conditions. "
  • stress condition a condition where biotic stress may be divided into biotic and abiotic (environmental) stresses. Unfavorable nutrient conditions are sometimes also referred to as “environmental stress”.
  • present invention does also contemplate solutions for this kind of environmental stress, e.g. referring to increased nutrient use efficiency.
  • the terms "en- hanced tolerance to abiotic stress”, “enhanced resistance to abiotic environmental stress”, “enhanced tolerance to environmental stress”, “improved adaptation to environmental stress” and other variations and expressions similar in its meaning are used interchangeably and refer, without limitation, to an improvement in tolerance to one or more abiotic environmental stress(es) as described herein and as compared to a corresponding origin or wild type plant or a part thereof.
  • abiotic stress tolerance(s) refers for example low temperature tolerance, drought tolerance or improved water use efficiency (WUE), heat tolerance, salt stress tolerance and others. Studies of a plant's response to desiccation, osmotic shock, and temperature extremes are also employed to determine the plant's tolerance or resistance to abiotic stresses.
  • Water use efficiency (WUE) is a parameter often correlated with drought tolerance. In selecting traits for improving crops, a decrease in water use, without a change in growth would have particular merit in an irrigated agricultural system where the water input costs were high. An increase in growth without a corresponding jump in water use would have applicability to all agricultural systems. In many agricultural systems where wa- ter supply is not limiting, an increase in growth, even if it came at the expense of an increase in water use also increases yield.
  • Drought stress means any environmental stress which leads to a lack of water in plants or reduction of water supply to plants, including a secondary stress by low temperature and/or salt, and/or a primary stress during drought or heat, e.g. desiccation etc.
  • sequence may relate to polynucleotides, nucleic acids, nucleic acid molecules, peptides, polypeptides and proteins, depending on the context in which the term “sequence” is used.
  • nucleic acid molecule(s) refers to a polymeric form of nucleotides of any length, either ribonucleotides or deoxyribonucleotides.
  • the terms “gene(s)”, “polynucleotide”, “nucleic acid sequence”, “nucleotide sequence”, or “nucleic acid molecule ⁇ )” as used herein include known types of modifications, for example, methylation, "caps", substitutions of one or more of the naturally occurring nucleotides with an analogue.
  • the DNA or RNA sequence comprises a coding sequence encoding the herein defined polypeptide.
  • nucleic acid and “nucleic acid molecule” are intended to include DNA molecules (e.g. cDNA or genomic DNA) and RNA molecules (e.g. mRNA) and analogs of the DNA or RNA generated using nucleotide analogs.
  • the nucleic acid molecule can be single-stranded or double-stranded.
  • An "isolated" nucleic acid molecule is one that is substantially separated from other nucleic acid molecules, which are present in the natural source of the nucleic acid. That means other nucleic acid molecules are present in an amount less than 5% based on weight of the amount of the desired nucleic acid, preferably less than 2% by weight, more preferably less than 1 % by weight, most preferably less than 0.5% by weight.
  • an "isolated" nucleic acid is free of some of the sequences that naturally flank the nucleic acid (i.e., sequences located at the 5' and 3' ends of the nucleic acid) in the genomic DNA of the organism from which the nucleic acid is derived.
  • the isolated yield increasing, for example, low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related protein encoding nucleic acid molecule can contain less than about 5 kb, 4 kb, 3 kb, 2 kb, 1 kb, 0.5 kb or 0.1 kb of nucleotide sequences which naturally flank the nucleic acid molecule in genomic DNA of the cell from which the nucleic acid is derived.
  • an "isolated" nucleic acid molecule such as a cDNA molecule, can be free from some of the other cellular material with which it is naturally associated, or culture medium when produced by recombinant techniques, or chemical precursors or other chemicals when chemically synthesized.
  • a "coding sequence” is a nucleotide sequence, which is transcribed into an RNA, e.g. a regulatory RNA, such as a miRNA, a ta-siRNA, co-suppression molecule, an RNAi, a ribozyme, etc. or into a mRNA which is translated into a polypeptide when placed under the control of appropriate regulatory sequences.
  • the boundaries of the coding sequence are determined by a translation start codon at the 5'-terminus and a translation stop codon at the 3'-terminus.
  • a coding sequence can include, but is not limited to mRNA, cDNA, recombinant nucleotide sequences or genomic DNA, while introns may be present as well under certain circumstances.
  • nucleic acid molecule may also encompass the untranslated sequence located at the 3' and at the 5' end of the coding gene region, for ex- ample 2000, preferably less, e.g. 500, preferably 200, especially preferably 100, nucleotides of the sequence upstream of the 5' end of the coding region and for example 300, preferably less, e.g. 100, preferably 50, especially preferably 20, nucleotides of the sequence downstream of the 3' end of the coding gene region.
  • Polypeptide refers to a polymer of amino acid (amino acid sequence) and does not refer to a specific length of the molecule.
  • polypeptides and oligopeptides are included within the definition of polypeptide.
  • This term does also refer to or include post-translational modifications of the polypeptide, for example, glycosylations, acetylations, phosphorylations and the like. Included within the definition are, for example, polypeptides containing one or more analogs of an amino acid (including, for example, unnatural amino acids, etc.), polypeptides with substituted linkages, as well as other modifications known in the art, both naturally occurring and non-naturally occurring.
  • An "isolated" polynucleotide or nucleic acid molecule is separated from other polynucleotides or nucleic acid molecules, which are pre- sent in the natural source of the nucleic acid molecule.
  • an isolated nucleic acid molecule may be a chromosomal fragment of several kb, or preferably, a molecule only comprising the coding region of the gene. Accordingly, an isolated nucleic acid molecule of the invention may comprise chromosomal regions, which are adjacent 5' and 3' or further adjacent chromosomal regions, but preferably comprises no such sequences which naturally flank the nucleic acid molecule sequence in the genomic or chromosomal context in the organism from which the nucleic acid molecule originates (for example sequences which are adjacent to the regions encoding the 5'- and 3'-UTRs of the nucleic acid molecule).
  • an “isolated” or “purified” polypeptide or biologically active portion thereof is free of some of the cellular material when produced by recombinant DNA techniques, or chemical precursors or other chemicals when chemically synthesized.
  • the language “substantially free of cellular material” includes preparations of a protein in which the polypeptide is separated from some of the cellular components of the cells in which it is naturally or recombinantly produced.
  • tablette I or chargingtable 1 " used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table I A and table I B.
  • the term "table II” used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table II A and table II B.
  • table I A used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table I A.
  • the term “table I B” used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table I B.
  • the term "table II A” used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table II A.
  • table II B used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table II B.
  • a protein or polypeptide has the "activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3" if its de novo activity, or its increased expression directly or indirectly leads to and confers increased yield, e.g. to an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant and the protein has the above mentioned activities of a protein as shown in table II, column 3.
  • an increased yield-related trait for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency
  • intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant and the protein has the above mentioned activities of a protein as shown in table II, column 3.
  • the activity or preferably the biological activity of such a protein or polypeptide or an nucleic acid molecule or sequence encoding such pro- tein or polypeptide is identical or similar if it still has the biological or enzymatic activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3, or which has 10% or more of the original enzymatic activity, preferably 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, particularly preferably 60%, 70%, 80% most particularly preferably 90%, 95 %, 98%, 99% or more in comparison to a protein as shown in table II, column 3 of S. cerevisiae or E. coli or Synechocystis sp. or A. thaliana.
  • the biological or enzymatic activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3 has 100% or more of the original enzymatic activity, preferably 1 10%, 120%, 130%, 150%, particularly preferably 150%, 200%, 300% or more in comparison to a protein as shown in table II, column 3 of S. cerevisiae or E. coli or Synechocystis sp. or A. thaliana.
  • the terms “increased”, “raised”, “extended”, “enhanced”, “improved” or “amplified” relate to a corresponding change of a property in a plant, an organism, a part of an organism such as a tissue, seed, root, leave, flower etc. or in a cell and are interchangeable.
  • the overall activity in the volume is increased or enhanced in cases if the increase or enhancement is related to the increase or enhancement of an activity of a gene product, independent whether the amount of gene product or the specific activity of the gene product or both is increased or enhanced or whether the amount, stability or translation efficacy of the nucleic acid sequence or gene encoding for the gene product is increased or enhanced.
  • the terms "increase” relate to a corresponding change of a property an organism or in a part of a plant, an organism, such as a tissue, seed, root, leave, flower etc. or in a cell.
  • the overall activity in the volume is increased in cases the increase relates to the increase of an activity of a gene product, independent whether the amount of gene product or the specific activity of the gene product or both is increased or generated or whether the amount, stability or translation efficacy of the nucleic acid sequence or gene encoding for the gene product is increased.
  • the terms “increase” include the change of said property in only parts of the subject of the present invention, for example, the modification can be found in compartment of a cell, like a organelle, or in a part of a plant, like tissue, seed, root, leave, flower etc. but is not detectable if the overall subject, i.e. complete cell or plant, is tested. Accordingly, the term “increase” means that the specific activity of an enzyme as well as the amount of a compound or metabolite, e.g. of a polypeptide, a nucleic acid molecule of the invention or an encoding mRNA or DNA, can be increased in a volume.
  • the term “increase” includes, that a compound or an activity, especially an activity, is introduced into a cell, the cytoplasm or a sub-cellular compartment or organelle de novo or that the compound or the activity, especially an activity, has not been detected before, in other words it is "generated”. Accordingly, in the following, the term “increasing” also comprises the term “generating” or “stimulating”.
  • the increased activity manifests itself in increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low tem- perature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • Amount of protein or mRNA is understood as meaning the molecule number of polypeptides or mRNA molecules in an organism, especially a plant, a tissue, a cell or a cell compartment.
  • Increase in the amount of a protein means the quantitative increase of the molecule number of said protein in an organism, especially a plant, a tissue, a cell or a cell compartment such as an organelle like a plastid or mitochondria or part thereof - for example by one of the methods described herein below - in comparison to a wild type, control or reference.
  • the increase in molecule number amounts preferably to 1 % or more, preferably to 10% or more, more preferably to 30% or more, especially preferably to 50%, 70% or more, very especially preferably to 100%, most preferably to 500% or more.
  • a de novo expression is also regarded as subject of the present invention.
  • wild type can be a cell or a part of organisms such as an organelle like a chloroplast or a tissue, or an organism, in particular a plant, which was not modified or treated according to the herein described process according to the invention.
  • the cell or a part of organisms such as an organelle like a chloroplast or a tissue, or an organism, in particular a plant used as wild type, control or reference corresponds to the cell, organism, plant or part thereof as much as possible and is in any other property but in the result of the process of the invention as identical to the subject matter of the invention as possible.
  • the wild type, control or reference is treated identically or as identical as possible, saying that only conditions or properties might be different which do not influence the quality of the tested property.
  • analogous conditions means that all conditions such as, for example, culture or growing conditions, soil, nutrient, water content of the soil, temperature, humidity or surrounding air or soil, assay conditions (such as buffer composition, temperature, substrates, pathogen strain, concentrations and the like) are kept identical between the experiments to be com- pared.
  • the "reference”, "control”, or “wild type” is preferably a subject, e.g. an organelle, a cell, a tissue, an organism, in particular a plant, which was not modified or treated according to the herein described process of the invention and is in any other property as similar to the subject matter of the invention as possible.
  • the reference, control or wild type is in its genome, transcriptome, proteome or metabolome as similar as possible to the subject of the present invention.
  • the term "reference-" "control-” or “wild type-”-organelle, - cell, -tissue or -organism, in particular plant relates to an organelle, cell, tissue or organism, in particular plant, which is nearly genetically identical to the organelle, cell, tissue or organism, in particular plant, of the present invention or a part thereof preferably 90% or more, e.g. 95%, more preferred are 98%, even more preferred are 99,00%, in particular
  • the "reference”, "control”, or “wild type” is a subject, e.g. an organelle, a cell, a tissue, an organism, in particular a plant, which is genetically identical to the organism, in particular plant, cell, a tissue or organelle used according to the process of the invention except that the responsible or activity conferring nucleic acid molecules or the gene product encoded by them are amended, manipulated, exchanged or introduced according to the inventive process.
  • a control, reference or wild type differing from the subject of the present inven- tion only by not being subject of the process of the invention can not be provided
  • a control, reference or wild type can be an organism in which the cause for the modulation of an activity conferring the enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof or expression of the nucleic acid molecule of the invention as described herein has been switched back or off, e.g. by knocking out the expression of responsible gene product, e.g.
  • preferred reference subject is the starting subject of the present process of the invention.
  • the reference and the subject matter of the invention are compared after standardization and normalization, e.g. to the amount of total RNA, DNA, or protein or activity or expression of reference genes, like housekeeping genes, such as ubiquitin, actin or ribosomal proteins.
  • expression refers to the transcription and/or translation of a codogenic gene segment or gene.
  • the resulting product is an mRNA or a protein.
  • the increase or modulation according to this invention can be constitutive, e.g. due to a stable permanent transgenic expression or to a stable mutation in the correspond- ing endogenous gene encoding the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or to a modulation of the expression or of the behavior of a gene conferring the expression of the polypeptide of the invention, or transient, e.g. due to an transient transformation or temporary addition of a modulator such as a agonist or antagonist or inducible, e.g. after transformation with a inducible construct carrying the nucleic acid molecule of the invention under control of a inducible promoter and adding the inducer, e.g. tetracycline or as described herein below.
  • a modulator such as a agonist or antagonist or inducible
  • the increase in activity of the polypeptide amounts in a cell, a tissue, an organelle, an organ or an organism, preferably a plant, or a part thereof preferably to 5% or more, preferably to 20% or to 50%, especially preferably to 70%, 80%, 90% or more, very especially preferably are to 100%, 150 % or 200%, most preferably are to 250% or more in comparison to the control, reference or wild type.
  • the term increase means the increase in amount in relation to the weight of the organism or part thereof (w/w).
  • vectors is meant with the exception of plasmids all other vectors known to those skilled in the art such as by way of example phages, viruses such as SV40, CMV, baculovirus, adenovirus, transposons, IS elements, phasmids, phagemids, cosmids, linear or circular DNA. These vectors can be replicated autonomously in the host organism or be chromosomally replicated, chromosomal replication being preferred.
  • vector refers to a nucleic acid molecule capable of transporting another nucleic acid to which it has been linked.
  • vector refers to a circular double stranded DNA loop into which additional DNA segments can be ligated.
  • viral vector Another type of vector is a viral vector, wherein additional DNA segments can be ligated into the viral genome.
  • Certain vectors are capable of autonomous replication in a host cell into which they are introduced (e.g. bacterial vectors having a bacterial origin of replication and episomal mammalian vectors).
  • Other vectors e.g. non-episomal mammalian vectors
  • certain vectors are capable of directing the expression of genes to which they are operatively linked.
  • expression vectors are referred to herein as "expression vectors.”
  • expression vectors of utility in recombinant DNA techniques are often in the form of plasmids.
  • plasmid and vector can be used interchangeably as the plasmid is the most commonly used form of vector.
  • the invention is intended to include such other forms of expression vectors, such as viral vectors (e.g., replication defective retroviruses, adenoviruses, and adeno-associated viruses), which serve equivalent functions.
  • operatively linked is intended to mean that the nucleotide sequence of interest is linked to the regulatory sequence(s) in a manner which allows for expression of the nucleotide sequence (e.g. in an in vitro transcription/translation system or in a host cell when the vector is introduced into the host cell).
  • regulatory sequence is intended to include promoters, enhancers, and other expression control elements (e.g. polyadenylation signals). Such regulatory sequences are described, for example, in Goed- del, Gene Expression Technology: Methods in Enzymology 185, Academic Press, San Diego, CA (1990), and Gruber and Crosby, in: Methods in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, eds.
  • Regulatory sequences include those that direct constitutive expression of a nucleotide sequence in many types of host cells and those that direct expression of the nucleotide sequence only in certain host cells or under certain conditions.
  • Transformation is defined herein as a process for introducing heterologous DNA into a plant cell, plant tissue, or plant. It may occur under natural or artificial conditions using various methods well known in the art. Transformation may rely on any known method for the insertion of foreign nucleic acid sequences into a prokaryotic or eukaryotic host cell. The method is selected based on the host cell being transformed and may include, but is not limited to, viral infection, electroporation, lipofection, and particle bom- bardment.
  • Such "transformed” cells include stably transformed cells in which the inserted DNA is capable of replication either as an autonomously replicating plasmid or as part of the host chromosome. They also include cells which transiently express the inserted DNA or RNA for limited periods of time. Transformed plant cells, plant tissue, or plants are un- derstood to encompass not only the end product of a transformation process, but also transgenic progeny thereof.
  • transformed refers to a host organism such as a bacterium or a plant into which a heterologous nucleic acid molecule has been introduced.
  • the nucleic acid molecule can be stably integrated into the genome of the host or the nucleic acid molecule can also be present as an extra-chromosomal molecule. Such an extra-chromosomal molecule can be auto-replicating.
  • Transformed cells, tissues, or plants are understood to encompass not only the end product of a transformation process, but also transgenic progeny thereof.
  • a “non-transformed", “non-transgenic” or “non- recombinant” host refers to a wild-type organism, e.g. a bacterium or plant, which does not contain the heterologous nucleic acid molecule.
  • host organism refers not only to the particular host organism or the particular target cell but also to the descendants or potential descendants of these organisms or cells. Since, due to mutation or environmental effects certain modifications may arise in successive generations, these descendants need not necessarily be identical with the parental cell but nevertheless are still encompassed by the term as used here.
  • nucleotide residues are not found in their natural, genetic environment or have been modified by genetic engineering methods, wherein the modification may by way of example be a substitution, addition, deletion, inversion or insertion of one or more nucleotide residues.
  • Natural genetic environment means the natural genomic or chromosomal locus in the organism of origin or inside the host organism or presence in a genomic library.
  • the natural genetic environment of the nucleic acid sequence is preferably retained at least in part.
  • the environment borders the nucleic acid sequence at least on one side and has a sequence length of at least 50 bp, preferably at least 500 bp, particularly preferably at least 1 ,000 bp, most particularly preferably at least 5,000 bp.
  • a naturally occurring expression cassette - for example the naturally occurring combination of the natural promoter of the nucleic acid sequence according to the invention with the corresponding gene - turns into a transgenic expression cassette when the latter is modified by unnatural, synthetic ("artificial") methods such as by way of example a mutagenation.
  • Ap-montte methods are described by way of example in US 5,565,350 or WO 00/15815.
  • transgenic plants used in accordance with the invention also refers to the progeny of a transgenic plant, for example the ⁇ , T 2 , T3 and subsequent plant generations or the BCi, BC2, BC3 and subsequent plant generations.
  • the transgenic plants according to the invention can be raised and selfed or crossed with other individuals in or- der to obtain further transgenic plants according to the invention.
  • Transgenic plants may also be obtained by propagating transgenic plant cells vegetatively.
  • the present invention also relates to transgenic plant material, which can be derived from a transgenic plant population according to the invention.
  • Such material includes plant cells and certain tissues, organs and parts of plants in all their manifestations, such as seeds, leaves, anthers, fibers, tubers, roots, root hairs, stems, embryo, calli, cotelydons, petioles, harvested material, plant tissue, reproductive tissue and cell cultures, which are derived from the actual transgenic plant and/or can be used for bringing about the transgenic plant.
  • Any transformed plant obtained according to the invention can be used in a conventional breeding scheme or in in vitro plant propagation to produce more transformed plants with the same characteristics and/or can be used to introduce the same characteristic in other varieties of the same or related species. Such plants are also part of the invention. Seeds obtained from the transformed plants genetically also contain the same characteristic and are part of the invention.
  • the present invention is in principle applicable to any plant and crop that can be transformed with any of the transformation method known to those skilled in the art.
  • the term "homology” means that the respective nucleic acid molecules or encoded proteins are functionally and/or structurally equivalent.
  • the nucleic acid molecules that are homologous to the nucleic acid molecules described above and that are derivatives of said nucleic acid molecules are, for example, variations of said nucleic acid molecules which represent modifications having the same biological function, in particular encoding proteins with the same or substantially the same biological function. They may be naturally occurring variations, such as sequences from other plant varieties or species, or mutations. These mutations may occur naturally or may be obtained by mutagenesis techniques.
  • the allelic variations may be naturally occurring allelic variants as well as synthetically produced or genetically engineered variants. Structurally equivalents can, for example, be identified by testing the binding of said polypeptide to antibodies or computer based predictions.
  • Structurally equivalent have the similar immunological characteristic, e.g. comprise similar epitopes.
  • the terms “gene” and “recombinant gene” refer to nucleic acid molecules comprising an open reading frame encoding the polypeptide of the invention or comprising the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or encoding the polypeptide used in the process of the present invention, preferably from a crop plant or from a microorgansim useful for the method of the invention. Such natural variations can typically result in 1 to 5% variance in the nucleotide sequence of the gene.
  • this invention provides measures and methods to produce plants with increased yield, e.g. genes conferring an increased yield-related trait, for example en- hanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait, upon expression or over-expression.
  • the present invention provides genes derived from plants. In particular, genes from plants are described in column 5 as well as in column 7 of tables I or II.
  • the present invention provides transgenic plants showing one or more improved yield-related traits as compared to the corresponding origin or the wild type plant and methods for producing such transgenic plants with increased yield.
  • One or more enhanced yield-related phenotypes are increased in accordance with the invention by increasing or generating one or more activities in the transgenic plant, wherein the activity is selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl- CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C- methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.
  • the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention or used in accordance with the present invention encodes a protein conferring an activity of a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D- erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01.1 -protein, 60952769.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule that encodes a polypeptide with an yield-increasing activity which is encoded by a nucleic acid sequence as shown in table I, column 5 or 7, and/or which is a protein comprising or consisting of a polypeptide as depicted in table II, column 5 and 7, and/or that can be amplified with the primer set shown in table III, column 7.
  • the increase or generation of one or more said "activities” is for example conferred by the increase of activity or of amount in a cell or a part thereof of one or more expression products of said nucleic acid molecule, e.g. proteins, or by de novo expression, i.e. by the generation of said "activity" in the plant.
  • one or more of said yield-increasing activities are increased by increasing the amount and/or the specific activity of one or more proteins listed in Table I, column 5 or 7 in a compartment of a cell indicated in Table I, column 6.
  • the yield of the plant of the invention is increased by improving one or more of the yield-related traits as defined herein.
  • Said in- creased yield in accordance with the present invention can typically be achieved by enhancing or improving, in comparison to an origin or wild-type plant, one or more yield-related traits of said plant.
  • Such yield-related traits of a plant the improvement of which results in increased yield comprise, without limitation, the increase of the intrinsic yield capacity of a plant, improved nutrient use efficiency, and/or increased stress tolerance.
  • abiotic environmental stress refers to nitrogen use efficiency.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 64, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 63, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 64 is conferred if the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 63 or SEQ ID NO.: 64, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 642, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 641 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT1G53885-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or poly- peptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 641 or SEQ ID NO.: 642, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.25-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2458, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2457, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.11 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 6495, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 6494, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 6495, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "histone H2B" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 6494 or SEQ ID NO.: 6495, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.19-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "protein kinase family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7434 or SEQ ID NO.: 7435, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.24-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7514, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7513, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AP2 domain- containing transcription factor" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7513 or SEQ ID NO.: 7514, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.40-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corre- sponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7546, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7545, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 8287 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "plastid lipid- associated protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, de- picted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8287 or SEQ ID NO.: 8288, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.14-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding con- trol, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7865, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7864, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.13-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8153, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8152, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "cold response protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8152 or SEQ ID NO.: 8153, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "universal stress protein family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10880 or SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.05-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corre- sponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 10965 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "heat shock protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10965 or SEQ ID NO.: 10966, re- spectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.13-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1419, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 11418, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 11418 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 11419, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "argonaute protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1 1418 or SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12197, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12196, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • AT2G35300-protein or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12196 or SEQ ID NO.: 12197, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.23- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12317, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12316, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 12317 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.08-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13277, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13276, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 13276 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13277, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "jasmonate- zim-domain protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13276 or SEQ ID NO.: 13277, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.24- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is in- creased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 13245 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "PRLI- interacting factor" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13245 or SEQ ID NO.: 13246, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1 .23-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10754, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10753, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13310, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13309, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is in- creased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • AT5G42380-protein or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13309 or SEQ ID NO.: 13310, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1 .32- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10750, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10749, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 57972199. R01.1 -protein or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10749 or SEQ ID NO.: 10750, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1 .05-fold to 1 .30- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13502, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13501 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is in- creased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Oryza sativa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase oc- curs cytoplasmic is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • a corresponding control e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • the transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13102, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide
  • activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13102 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13103, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "ubiquitin- conjugating enzyme" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13102 or SEQ ID NO.: 13103, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.23- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • nucleic acid molecule indicated in Table VI lid or its homolog as indicated in Table I or the expression product is used in the method of the present invention to increase intrinsic yield, e.g. to increase yield under standard conditions, e.g. increase biomass under non-deficiency or non-stress conditions, of the plant compared to the wild type control.
  • a plant's tolerance to drought may be measured by monitoring any of the pheno- types described above in a field during a drought, or in a model system in a drought assay such as a cycling drought or water use efficiency assay. Experimental designs of cycling drought assays and water use efficiency assays are known. An increased drought tolerance may be demonstrated, for example, by survival of a transgenic corn, soy, oilseed rape, or cotton plant produced in accordance with the present invention under water-limiting conditions which would stunt or destroy a control plant of the respective species.
  • Water use efficiency is a parameter often correlated with drought tolerance.
  • An increase in biomass at low water availability may be due to relatively improved efficiency of growth or reduced water consumption.
  • a decrease in water use, without a change in growth would have particular merit in an irrigated agricultural system where the water input costs were high.
  • An increase in growth without a corresponding jump in water use would have applicability to all agricultural systems.
  • an increase in growth, even if it came at the expense of an increase in water use also increases yield.
  • increased tolerance to drought conditions can be determined and quantified according to the following method: Transformed plants are grown individually in pots in a growth chamber (York Industriekalte GmbH, Mannheim, Germany). Germination is induced. In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana sown seeds are kept at 4°C, in the dark, for 3 days in order to induce germination. Subsequently conditions are changed for 3 days to 20°C/ 6°C day/night temperature with a 16/8h day-night cycle at 150 E/m 2 s.
  • the plants are grown under standard growth conditions.
  • the standard growth conditions are: photoperiod of 16 h light and 8 h dark, 20 °C, 60% relative humidity, and a photon flux density of 200 ⁇ .
  • Plants are grown and cultured until they develop leaves.
  • the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana they are watered daily until they were approximately 3 weeks old. Starting at that time drought was imposed by withholding water.
  • the evaluation starts and plants are scored for symptoms of drought symptoms and biomass production comparison to wild type and neighboring plants for 5 - 6 days in succession.
  • the tolerance to drought e.g. the tolerance to cycling drought can be determined according to the method described in the examples.
  • the tolerance to drought can be a tolerance to cycling drought.
  • the present invention relates to a method for increasing the yield, comprising the following steps:
  • Visual symptoms of injury stating for one or any combination of two, three or more of the following features: wilting; leaf browning; loss of turgor, which results in drooping of leaves or needles stems, and flowers; drooping and/or shedding of leaves or needles; the leaves are green but leaf angled slightly toward the ground compared with controls; leaf blades begun to fold (curl) inward; premature senescence of leaves or needles; loss of chlorophyll in leaves or needles and/or yellowing.
  • Another yield-related phenotype is increased nutrient use efficiency.
  • the genes identified in Table I, or homologs thereof, may be used to enhance nutrient use efficiency in transgenic plants. Such transgenic plants may demonstrate enhanced yield, as measured by any of the phenotypes described above, with current commercial levels of fertilizer application. Alternatively or additionally, transgenic plants with improved nutrient use efficiency may demonstrate equivalent yield or improved yield with reduced fertilizer input.
  • a particularly important nutrient for plants is nitrogen.
  • transgenic plants comprising a gene identified in Table I, or a homolog thereof, demonstrate increased nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), which is increased harvestable yield per unit of input nitrogen fertilizer.
  • NUE nitrogen use efficiency
  • Increased nitrogen use efficiency may be determined by measuring any of the yield-related phenotypes described above, in plants which have been grown under conditions of controlled nitrogen soil concentrations, both in the field and in model systems.
  • An exemplary nitrogen use efficiency assay is set forth below.
  • An increased nitrogen use efficiency of a transgenic corn, soy, oilseed rape, or cotton plant in accordance with the present invention may be demonstrated, for example, by an improved or increased protein content of the respective seed, in particular in corn seed used as feed.
  • Increased nitrogen use efficiency relates also to an increased kernel size or a higher kernel number per plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 64, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 63, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 64 respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 63 or SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.49-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 385, or en- coded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 384, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.37-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 505, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 504, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 505, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid mole- cule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 504 or SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.28-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 608, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 607, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 608, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 607 or SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.28-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 642, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 641 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gener- ated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.33-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 673, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 672, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 673 are polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 673, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 672 or SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.19-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1552, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1629, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1628, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.56-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1710, or preferably, in SEQ ID NO.: 2220, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1709, or preferably in SEQ ID NO.: 2219, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Escherichia coli is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1709 or SEQ ID NO.: 2219 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 1709 or 2219 or SEQ ID NO. 1710 or 2220, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs plastidic.
  • an increased nitrogen use effi- ciency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.27-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency in a plant is achieve by increasing the activity or amount of a polpypeptide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID No.: 2220 or a homolog thereof, which is 60%, 65%, 705; 80%, 5%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or 100% identical to SEQ ID NO.: 2220, or increasing the gene expression of a nucleic acid molecule comprising the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2219 or a molecule comprising a sequence which is 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or 100% identical to SEQ ID No.: 2219.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2227, or, preferably, as shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2447, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2226, or, preferably, as shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2246, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Escherichia coli is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2226, or SEQ ID NO.: 2246, or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2227, or SEQ ID NO.: 2447, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "3'-phosphoadenosine 5'- phosphate phosphatase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 2226 or 2446 or SEQ ID NO. 2227 or 2447, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs plastidic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an in- creased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.15-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency in a plant is achieve by increasing the activity or amount of a polpypeptide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID No.: 2447 or a homolog thereof, which is 60%, 65%, 705; 80%, 5%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or 100% identical to SEQ ID NO.: 2447, or increasing the gene expression of a nucleic acid molecule comprising the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2446 or a molecule comprising a sequence which is 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or 100% identical to SEQ ID No.: 2446.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2458, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2457, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.25- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "60S ribosomal protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 3463 or SEQ ID NO. 3464, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.13- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3795, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3794, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3795, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "serine hydroxymethyltransferase or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 3794 or SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.35-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 4631 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 4630, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Thermus thermophilus is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • SEQ ID NO. 4631 polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 4631 , respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environ- mental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "S-ribosylhomocysteinase or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 4630 or SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.36-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen defi- ciency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5043, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5042, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.29-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5070, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5069, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.66- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5493, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5492, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.10-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5839, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5839 respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT1 G29250.1 -protein or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypep- tide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO.
  • 5838 or SEQ ID NO. 5839, respectively is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5983, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5982, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5983 respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "serine acetyltransferase or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a poly- peptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 5982 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 5983 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.15- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 6495, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 6494, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.20-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7365, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7364, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 7364 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7365, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT4G01870-protein or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 7364 or SEQ ID NO. 7365, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 7435 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.13-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7514, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7513, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one em- bodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.33-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7546, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7545, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 7546 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.14- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7722, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7721 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 7721 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7722, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "ABC transporter family protein or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 7721 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 7722 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.24-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "plastid lipid-associated protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8287 or SEQ ID NO. 8288, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7865, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7864, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7864 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7865, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "galactinol synthase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 7864 or SEQ ID NO. 7865, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8065, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8064, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.57-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8105, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8104, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8105 respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8104 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 8105 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.60-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8153, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8152, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.12- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8207, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8206, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.15-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "small heat shock protein or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8408 or SEQ ID NO. 8409, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8843, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8842, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 8843 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.31 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 9855, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 9854, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Oryza sativa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 9854 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 9855, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "sugar transporter or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 9854 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 9855 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.77-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 9982, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 9981 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 9982 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10799, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10798, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 10798 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10799, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a correspond- ing non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "protein kinase or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10798 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 10799 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.20-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10839, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 10839 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.24-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 10881 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.21 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 10965 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "heat shock protein or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10965 or SEQ ID NO. 10966, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.16-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1419, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1418, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 11419 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • in- creased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.18-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1753, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1752, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1752 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1753, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "glutathione-S-transferase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 1 1752 or SEQ ID NO. 1 1753, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.18-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12197, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12196, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.20-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12317, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12316, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 12317 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.16-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen defi- ciency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12574, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12573, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 12573 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12574, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT3G04620-protein or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 12573 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 12574 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.1 1 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen defi- ciency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12669, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12668, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 12668 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12669, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "Cytochrome P450 or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 12668 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 12669 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.34-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13132, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13131 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 13132 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.95-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13277, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13276, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13276 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13277, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13276 or SEQ ID NO. 13277, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13437, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13436, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 13437 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.33-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13478, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13477, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 13478 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.23-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13552, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246 respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "PRLI-interacting factor or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13245 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 13246 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.32-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10754, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10753, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 10753 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10754, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activ- ity "60952769. R01.1 -protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10753 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 10754 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.18- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13310, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13309, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 13309 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13310, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT5G42380-protein or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13309 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 13310 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.33-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10750, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10749, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • 10749 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10750, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "57972199. R01.1 -protein or” if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10749 or SEQ ID NO.
  • 10750 is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.14- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13502, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13501 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Oryza sativa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred.
  • an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.14-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13103, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13102, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13102 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • nucleic acid molecule indicated in Table Villa or its homolog as indicated in Table I or the expression product is used in the method of the present invention to increased nutrient use efficiency, e.g. to increased the nitrogen use efficiency, of the the plant compared with the wild type control.
  • enhanced nitrogen use efficiency of the plant can be determined and quantified according to the following method: Transformed plants are grown in pots in a growth chamber (Svalof Weibull, Svalov, Sweden). In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana seeds thereof are sown in pots containing a 1 :1 (v:v) mixture of nutrient depleted soil ("Einheitserde Typ 0", 30% clay, Tantau, Wansdorf Germany) and sand. Germination is induced by a four day period at 4°C, in the dark. Subsequently the plants are grown under standard growth conditions.
  • the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana
  • the standard growth conditions are: photoperiod of 16 h light and 8 h dark, 20 °C, 60% relative humidity, and a photon flux density of 200 ⁇ .
  • the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana they are watered every second day with a N-depleted nutrient solution and after 9 to 10 days the plants are individualized. After a total time of 29 to 31 days the plants are harvested and rated by the fresh weight of the aerial parts of the plants, preferably the rosettes.
  • the nitrogen use efficiency for example be determined according to the method described herein. Further, the present invention relates also to a method for increasing the yield, comprising the following steps: (a) measuring the nitrogen content in the soil, and (b) determining, whether the nitrogen-content in the soil is optimal or suboptimal for the growth of an origin or wild type plant, e.g.
  • Plants (over)expressing nitrogen use efficiency-improving genes can be used for the enhancement of yield of said plants and improve, e.g. reduce nitrogen fertilizer utilization or make it more efficient.
  • adaptation to low temperature may be divided into chilling tolerance, and freezing tolerance.
  • Improved or enhanced "freezing tolerance” or variations thereof refers herein to improved adaptation to temperatures near or below zero, namely preferably temperatures 4 °C or below, more preferably 3 °C or 2 °C or below, and particularly preferred at or 0 (zero) °C or -4 °C or below, or even extremely low temperatures down to - 10 °C or lower; hereinafter called “freezing temperature”.
  • an increased tolerance to low temperature may be demonstrated, for example, by an early vigor and allows the early planting and sowing of a corn, soy, oilseed rape, or cotton plant produced according to the method of the present invention.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 608, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 607, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 608, respectively, or a homolog thereof E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 607 or SEQ ID NO.: 608, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplas- mic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.08-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 642, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 641 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT1 G53885-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 641 or SEQ ID NO.: 642, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.07-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 673, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 672, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.18-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1629, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1628, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT5G47440-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1628 or SEQ ID NO.: 1629, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.07-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1710, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1709, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Escherichia coli is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs plastidic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.24-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2227, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2226, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Escherichia coli is in- creased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2226 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2227, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 2226 or SEQ ID NO.: 2227, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs plastidic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.09-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.09-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 4631 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 4630, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Thermus thermophilus is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • SEQ ID NO. 4631 polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 4631 , respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "S-ribosylhomocysteinase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 4630 or SEQ ID NO.: 4631 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5493, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5492, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.09-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5839, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5838 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5839, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT1G29250.1 -protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5838 or SEQ ID NO.: 5839, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.20-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5983, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5982, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5982 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5983, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "serine acetyltransferase" or if the activity of a nu- cleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5982 or SEQ ID NO.: 5983, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.22-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7365, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7364, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7364 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7365, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT4G01870-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7364 or SEQ ID NO.: 7365, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.1 1-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "protein kinase family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7434 or SEQ ID NO.: 7435, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.07-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7514, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7513, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AP2 domain-containing transcription factor" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7513 or SEQ ID NO.: 7514, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.31 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7546, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7545, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.13-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "plastid lipid-associated protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8287 or SEQ ID NO.: 8288, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8065, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8064, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.10-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8105, or encoded by a nucleic acid mole- cule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8104, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8104 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8105, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 " or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8104 or SEQ ID NO.: 8105, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.08-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "small heat shock protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the con- sensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8408 or SEQ ID NO.: 8409, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.1 1-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8843, or encoded by a nucleic acid mole- cule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8842, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8842 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8843, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or poly- peptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8842 or SEQ ID NO.: 8843, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.15-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "universal stress protein family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10880 or SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.07-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, respectively, or a ho- molog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "heat shock protein” or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10965 or SEQ ID NO.: 10966, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.15-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12197, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12196, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT2G35300-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12196 or SEQ ID NO.: 12197, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.10-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13132, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13131 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13131 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13132, respectively, or a ho- molog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13131 or SEQ ID NO.: 13132, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.08-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13437, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13436, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13436 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13437, respectively, or a homolog thereo.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "CDS5394-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13436 or SEQ ID NO.: 13437, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13478, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13477, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13477 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13478, respectively, or a homolog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "CDS5401_TRUNCATED- protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13477 or SEQ ID NO.: 13478, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.16-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13552, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "cullin” or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13551 or SEQ ID NO.: 13552, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.14-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated.
  • the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, respectively, or a ho- molog thereof.
  • an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g.
  • a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "PRLI-interacting factor" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13245 or SEQ ID NO.: 13246, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.25-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
  • nucleic acid molecule indicated as indicated in Table I or the expression product is used in the method of the present invention to increase stress tolerance, e.g. increase low temperature, of a plant compared to the wild type control.
  • the ratios indicated above particularly refer to an increased yield actually measured as increase of biomass, especially as fresh weight biomass of aerial parts.
  • Enhanced tolerance to low temperature may, for example, be determined according to the following method: Transformed plants are grown in pots in a growth chamber (e.g. York, Mannheim, Germany). In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana seeds thereof are sown in pots containing a 3.5:1 (v:v) mixture of nutrient rich soil (GS90, Tantau, Wans- dorf, Germany) and sand. Plants are grown under standard growth conditions. In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana, the standard growth conditions are: photoperiod of 16 h light and 8 h dark, 20 °C, 60% relative humidity, and a photon flux density of 200 pmol/m 2 s. Plants are grown and cultured.
  • the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana they are watered every second day. After 9 to 10 days the plants are individualized. Cold (e.g. chilling at 11 - 12 °C) is applied 14 days after sowing until the end of the experiment. After a total growth period of 29 to 31 days the plants are harvested and rated by the fresh weight of the aerial parts of the plants, in the case of Arabidopsis preferably the rosettes.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 64, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 63, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or poly- peptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 63, or SEQ ID NO.: 64, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 385, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 384, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 384, or SEQ ID NO.: 385, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplas- mic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 505, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 504, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 504, or SEQ ID NO.: 505, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 608, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 607, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 607, or SEQ ID NO.: 608, respec- tively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 642, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 641 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "AT1G53885-protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the con- sensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 641 , or SEQ ID NO.: 642, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 673, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 672, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 672, or SEQ ID NO.: 673, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1552, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "Polypyrimidine tract binding protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1551 , or SEQ ID NO.: 1552, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1629, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1628, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "AT5G47440-protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1628, or SEQ ID NO.: 1629, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1710, or preferably, in SEQ ID NO.: 2220, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nu- cleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1709, or, preferably, in SEQ ID NO.: 2219, a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g.
  • the increase occurs plastidic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2227, or, preferably as in SEQ ID NO.: 2447, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2226, or preferably as in SEQ ID NO.: 2446, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g.
  • the activity "3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 2226 or 2446, or SEQ ID NO.: 2227 or 2447, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs plastidic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2458, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2457, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa.
  • the activity "3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 2457, or SEQ ID NO.: 2458, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 3464, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 3463, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa.
  • the activity "60S ribosomal protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 3463, or SEQ ID NO.: 3464, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 3795, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 3794, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa.
  • the activity "serine hydroxymethyltransferase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 3794, or SEQ ID NO.: 3795, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 4631 , or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 4630, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Thermus thermo- philus.
  • the activity "S-ribosylhomocysteinase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 4630, or SEQ ID NO.: 4631 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5043, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5042, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
  • the activity "Vacuolar protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5042, or SEQ ID NO.: 5043, respectively, is increased or gener- ated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5070, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5069, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
  • the activity "GTPase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5069, or SEQ ID NO.: 5070, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5493, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5492, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Zea mays.
  • the activity "Thioredoxin H-type” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5492, or SEQ ID NO.: 5493, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5839, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "AT1G29250.1 -protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5838, or SEQ ID NO.: 5839, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5983, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5982, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "serine acetyltransferase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5982, or SEQ ID NO.: 5983, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 6495, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 6494, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "histone H2B” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus se- quence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 6494, or SEQ ID NO.: 6495, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7365, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7364, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "AT4G01870-protein” or the activity of a nu- cleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7364, or SEQ ID NO.: 7365, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7435, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7434, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "protein kinase family protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7434, or SEQ ID NO.: 7435, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7514, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7513, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "AP2 domain-containing transcription factor” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7513, or SEQ ID NO.: 7514, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7546, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7545, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa.
  • the activity "Oligosaccharyltransferase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7545, or SEQ ID NO.: 7546, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7722, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7721 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "ABC transporter family protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7721 , or SEQ ID NO.: 7722, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8288, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8287, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "plastid lipid-associated protein" or the activ- ity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8287, or SEQ ID NO.: 8288, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplas- mic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7865, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7864, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "galactinol synthase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7864, or SEQ ID NO.: 7865, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8065, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8064, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8064, or SEQ ID NO.: 8065, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8105, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8104, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8104, or SEQ ID NO.: 8105, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8153, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8152, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "cold response protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8152, or SEQ ID NO.: 8153, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8207, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8206, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "heat shock transcription factor” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8206, or SEQ ID NO.: 8207, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplas- mic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8409, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8408, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "small heat shock protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8408, or SEQ ID NO.: 8409, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8843, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8842, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa.
  • the activity "rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8842, or SEQ ID NO.: 8843, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 9855, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 9854, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Oryza sativa.
  • the activity "sugar transporter" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 9854, or SEQ ID NO.: 9855, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 9982, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 9981 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
  • the activity "mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 9981 , or SEQ ID NO.: 9982, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10799, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10798, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "protein kinase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10798, or SEQ ID NO.: 10799, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10839, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "haspin-related protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10838, or SEQ ID NO.: 10839, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10880, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "universal stress protein family protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10880, or SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10966, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10965, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "heat shock protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10965, or SEQ ID NO.: 10966, respectively, is increased or gen- erated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1 1418, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "argonaute protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 11418, or SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 11753, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 11752, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "glutathione-S-transferase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 11752, or SEQ ID NO.: 1 1753, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12197, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12196, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "AT2G35300-protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12196, or SEQ ID NO.: 12197, respectively, is increased or gen- erated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12317, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12316, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "ubiquitin-protein ligase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12316, or SEQ ID NO.: 12317, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12574, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12573, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "AT3G04620-protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the con- sensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12573, or SEQ ID NO.: 12574, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12669, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12668, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "Cytochrome P450" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12668, or SEQ ID NO.: 12669, respectively, is increased or gen- erated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13132, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13131 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13131 , or SEQ ID NO.: 13132, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13277, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13276, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein” or the activ- ity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13276, or SEQ ID NO.: 13277, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13437, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13436, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa.
  • the activity "CDS5394-protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13436, or SEQ ID NO.: 13437, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13478, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13477, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa.
  • the activity "CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein” or the activ- ity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13477, or SEQ ID NO.: 13478, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13552, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Zea mays.
  • the activity "cullin” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13551 , or SEQ ID NO.: 13552, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13246, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13245, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "PRLI-interacting factor" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13245, or SEQ ID NO.: 13246, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10754, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10753, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Zea mays.
  • the activity "60952769.
  • R01.1 -protein or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10753, or SEQ ID NO.: 10754, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13310, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13309, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "AT5G42380-protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13309, or SEQ ID NO.: 13310, respectively, is increased or gen- erated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10750, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10749, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Zea mays.
  • the activity "57972199.
  • R01.1 -protein or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10749, or SEQ ID NO.: 10750, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13502, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13501 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Oryza sativa.
  • the activity "OS02G44730-protein” or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus se- quence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13501 , or SEQ ID NO.: 13502, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13103, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13102, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana.
  • the activity "ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme” or the activ- ity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13102, or SEQ ID NO.: 13103, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof.
  • the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
  • the present invention provides a method for producing a plant showing increased or improved yield as compared to the corresponding origin or wild type plant, by increasing or generating one or more activities selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'- phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 - protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein,
  • AT2G35300-protein AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein,
  • an increased yield-related trait for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant or a part thereof.
  • the said method for producing a plant or a part thereof for the regeneration of said plant, the plant showing an increased yield comprises (i) growing the plant or part thereof together with a, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant under conditions of abiotic environmental stress or deficiency; and (ii) selecting a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant, for example after the, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant shows visual symptoms of deficiency and/or death.
  • the present invention relates to a method for producing a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding origin or wild type plant, e.g. a transgenic plant, which comprises: (a) increasing or generating, in a plant cell nucleus, a plant cell, a plant or a part thereof, one or more activities of a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'- phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 - protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29
  • the present invention also relates to a method for the identification of a plant with an increased yield comprising screening a population of one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof for said "activity", comparing the level of activity with the activity level in a reference; identifying one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof with the activity increased compared to the reference, optionally producing a plant from the identified plant cell nuclei, cell or tissue.
  • the present invention also relates to a method for the identification of a plant with an increased yield comprising screening a population of one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof for the expression level of an nucleic acid coding for an polypeptide conferring said activity, comparing the level of expression with a reference; identifying one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof with the expression level increased compared to the reference, optionally producing a plant from the identified plant cell nuclei, cell or tissue.
  • the present invention provides a method for producing a transgenic cell for the regeneration or production of a plant with increased yield, e.g. tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or another increased yield- related trait, as compared to a corresponding, e.g.
  • non-transformed, wild type cell by increasing or generating one or more polypeptide activities selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribo- somal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED
  • the cell can be for example a host cell, e.g. a transgenic host cell.
  • a host cell can be for example a microorganism, e.g. derived from fungi or bacteria, or a plant cell particular useful for transformation.
  • the present invention provides a transgenic plant showing one or more increased yield-related trait as compared to the corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, origin or wild type plant cell or plant, having an increased or newly generated one or more "activities" selected from the above mentioned group of "activities" in the sub-cellular compartment and tissue indicated herein of said plant.
  • the present invention provides a method for producing a cell for the regeneration or production of a plant with an increased yield-trait, e.g. tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or another increased yield-related trait, as compared to a corresponding, e.g.
  • non-transformed, wild type plant cell by increasing or generating one or more polypeptides or activities selected from the group consisting of 2- oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'- phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein,
  • Said cell for the regeneration or production of a plant can be for example a host cell, e.g. a transgenic host cell.
  • a host cell can be for example a microorganism, e.g. de- rived from fungi or bacteria, or a plant cell particular useful for transformation.
  • the present invention fulfills the need to identify new, unique genes capable of conferring increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait, to plants, upon expression or over- expression of exogenous genes. Accordingly, the present invention provides novel ho- mologs of the genes described in Table I, e.g. in table IB.
  • the increase in activity of the polypeptide amounts in an organelle such as a plastid. In another embodiment the increase in activity of the polypeptide amounts in the cytoplasm.
  • AT1 G06620_modified from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G06680.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G06680.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G14130.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G14130.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G14130.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G20810.1_modified from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G20810.1_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G20810.1_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G53885 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published. Its activity is described as AT1 G53885-protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT1 G53885-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G53885 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G53885, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT2G38730.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published. Its activity is described as peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its func- tional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G38730.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G38730.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT3G01150.1_truncated from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published. Its activity is described as Polypyrimidine tract binding protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "Polypyrimidine tract binding protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G01 150.1 _truncated or a functional equivalent or a homo- logue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G01150.1_truncated, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT5G47440_modified from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I. Its activity is described as AT5G47440-protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT5G47440-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G47440_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G47440_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase" from Escherichia coli or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B1208 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B1208, e.g. plastidic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase" from Escherichia coli or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B4214 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B4214, e.g. plastidic.
  • CDS5293_modified from Populus trichocarpa e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is is described as 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • cytoplasmic or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5293_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5293_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • CDS5305 from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 60S ribosomal protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "60S ribosomal protein" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5305 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5305, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • CDS5397 from Populus trichocarpa e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as serine hydroxymethyltransferase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "serine hydroxymethyltransferase" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5397 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5397, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • TTC1 186 from Thermus thermophilus e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as S-ribosylhomocysteinase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "S-ribosylhomocysteinase" from Thermus thermophilus or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said TTC1 186 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said TTC1 186, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • sequence of YKL124W from Saccharomyces cerevisiae e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published in Gof- feau et al., Science 274 (5287), 546 (1996),. Its activity is described as Vacuolar protein. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "Vacuolar protein" from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YKL124W or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YKL124W, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "GTPase” from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YNL093W or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YNL093W, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "Thioredoxin H-type" from Zea mays or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM_7266_BQ538406_CORN_LOFI_344_730_B or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM_7266_BQ538406_CORN_LOFI_344_730_B, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G29250.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as AT1 G29250.1 -protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT1 G29250.1 -protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • cytoplasmic or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G29250.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G29250.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G55920.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as serine acetyltransferase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "serine acetyltransferase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G55920.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G55920.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT3G09480 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as histone H2B.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "histone H2B" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G09480 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G09480, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT4G01870 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as AT4G01870-protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT4G01870-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of (a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G01870 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G01870, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G01870 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G01870, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT4G1 1890 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as protein kinase family protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "protein kinase family protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G1 1890 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G1 1890, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT5G07310 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as AP2 domain-containing transcription factor.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AP2 domain-containing transcription factor" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G07310 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G07310, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity Oligosaccharyltransferase" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5422 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5422, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G03905.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as ABC transporter family protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "ABC transporter family protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its func- tional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G03905.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G03905.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT4G22240.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as plastid lipid-associated protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "plastid lipid-associated protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of (a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G22240.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G22240.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G22240.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G22240.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G09350.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as galactinol synthase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "galactinol synthase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09350.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09350.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G30135.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as jasmonate-zim-domain protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • cytoplasmic or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G30135.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G30135.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G35680.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 " from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G35680.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G35680.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT2G42540.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as cold response protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "cold response protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equiva- lent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G42540.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G42540.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "heat shock transcription factor" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of (a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G02990.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G02990.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G02990.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G02990.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • At5g37670.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as small heat shock protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "small heat shock protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said At5g37670.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said At5g37670.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • CDS5376 from Populus trichocarpa e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5376 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5376, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "sugar transporter" from Oryza sativa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said LOC_Os02g13560.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said LOC_Os02g13560.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase" from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YCR024C or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YCR024C, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G05100_truncated from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as protein kinase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "protein kinase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G05100_truncated or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G05100_truncated, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G09450 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as haspin-related protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "haspin-related protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equiva- lent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09450 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09450, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G44760 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as universal stress protein family protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "universal stress protein family protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • cytoplasmic or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G44760 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G44760, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT1 G54050.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as heat shock protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "heat shock protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G54050.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G54050.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT2G27040 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as argonaute protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "argonaute protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G27040 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G27040, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "glutathione-S-transferase " from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G29490 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G29490, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT2G35300-protein The sequence of AT2G35300 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as AT2G35300-protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "AT2G35300-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35300 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35300, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT2G35930 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as ubiquitin-protein ligase.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "ubiquitin-protein ligase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • cytoplasmic or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35930 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35930, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT3G04620-protein The sequence of AT3G04620 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as AT3G04620-protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT3G04620-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G04620 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G04620, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT3G20960 from Arabidopsis thaliana e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as Cytochrome P450.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "Cytochrome P450" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G20960 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G20960, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • cytoplasmic or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G61580.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G61580.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT5G13220 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as jasmonate-zim-domain protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G13220 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G13220, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • CDS5394-protein The sequence of CDS5394 from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as CDS5394-protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "CDS5394-protein" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • cytoplasmic or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5394 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5394, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein The sequence of CDS5401 . TRUNCATED from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5401_TRUNCATED or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5401_TRUNCATED, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "cullin" from Zea mays or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM06LC319_CORN_LOFI_151_2385_A or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM06LC319_CORN_LOFI_151_2385_A, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT4G15420.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as PRLI-interacting factor.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "PRLI-interacting factor" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G15420.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G15420.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "60952769.
  • R01.1 -protein from Zea mays or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 60952769.
  • R01.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 60952769.R01.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT5G42380 The sequence of AT5G42380 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as AT5G42380-protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT5G42380-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G42380 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G42380, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "57972199. R01.1 -protein" from Zea mays or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • R01.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 57972199.R01.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • OS02G44730 from Oryza sativa e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as OS02G44730-protein.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "OS02G44730-protein" from Oryza sativa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said OS02G44730 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said OS02G44730, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • AT3G24515 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme.
  • the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
  • a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G24515 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G24515, e.g. cytoplasmic.
  • the plant shows one or more increased yield-related trait(s).
  • said activity is increased in the compartment of a cell as indicated in table I or II in column 6 resulting in an increased yield of the corresponding plant.
  • the specific localization of said activity confers an improved or increased yield- related trait as shown in table VIII.
  • said activity can be increased in plastids or mitochondria of a plant cell, thus conferring increase of yield in a corresponding plant.
  • an activity conferred by an expression of a gene described herein or its expression product e.g. by a polypeptide shown in table II, is increase or generated in the plastid , if in column 6 of each table I or II the term "plastidic" is listed for said polypeptide.
  • an activity conferred by the expression of a gene described herein or its expression product e.g. by a polypeptide shown in table I or II, is increase or generated in the mitochondria if in column 6 of each table I or II the term "mitochondria" is listed for said polypeptide.
  • the present invention relates to a method for producing an, e.g. transgenic, plant with increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant, which comprises
  • an activity according to the invention as being conferred by a polypeptide shown in table II is increase or generated in the cytoplasm, if in column 6 of each table I the term "cytoplasmic" is listed for said polypeptide.
  • cytoplasmic and “non-targeted” shall not exclude a targeted localisation to any cell compartment for the products of the inventive nucleic acid
  • cytoplasmic shall indicate, that the nucleic acid of the invention is expressed without the addition of an non-natural transit peptide encoding sequence.
  • a non-natural transient peptide encoding sequence is a sequence which is not a natural part of a nucleic acid of the invention but is rather added by molecular manipulation steps as for example described in the example under "plastid targeted expression". Therefore the term “cytoplasmic” shall not exclude a targeted localisation to any cell compartment for the products of the inventive nucleic acid sequences by their naturally occurring sequence properties.
  • the present invention is related to a method for produc- ing a, e.g. transgenic, plant with increased yield, or a part thereof, as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant, which comprises
  • a polypeptide e.g. the activity of said gene or the gene product gene, e.g. an activity selected from the group con- sisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'- phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D- erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.
  • R01 .1 -protein 60952769.
  • R01 .1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein,
  • AT1 G53885-protein AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein,
  • CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI- interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine
  • Transit peptide may be used in accordance with the various embodiments of the present invention.
  • specificucleic acid sequences are encoding transit peptides are disclosed by von Heijne et al. (Plant Molecular Biology Reporter, 9 (2), 104, (1991)) or other transit peptides are disclosed by Schmidt et al. (J. Biol. Chem. 268 (36), 27447 (1993)), Della-Cioppa et al. (Plant. Physiol. 84, 965 (1987)), de Castro Silva Filho et al. (Plant Mol. Biol. 30, 769 (1996)), Zhao et al. (J. Biol. Chem.
  • Transit peptide is an amino acid sequence, whose encoding nucleic acid sequence is translated together with the corresponding structural gene. That means the transit peptide is an integral part of the translated protein and forms an amino terminal extension of the protein. Both are translated as so called "pre-protein". In general the transit peptide is cleaved off from the pre-protein during or just after import of the protein into the correct cell organelle such as a plastid to yield the mature protein. The transit peptide ensures correct localization of the mature protein by facilitating the transport of proteins through intracellular membranes.
  • transit peptides which are beneficially used in the inventive process, are derived from the nucleic acid sequence encoding a protein selected from the group consisting of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, 5-enolpyruvyl-shikimate- 3-phosphate synthase, acetolactate synthase, chloroplast ribosomal protein CS17, Cs protein, ferredoxin, plastocyanin, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase activase, tryptophan syn- thase, acyl carrier protein, plastid chaperonin-60, cytochrome C552, 22-kDA heat shock protein, 33-kDa Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein 1 , ATP synthase ⁇ subunit, ATP synthase ⁇ subunit, chlorophyll-a/b-binding proteinll-1 , Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein 2, Oxygen- evolving
  • nucleic acid sequences encoding transit peptides can easily isolated from plastid-localized proteins, which are expressed from nuclear genes as precursors and are then targeted to plastids.
  • Nucleic acid sequences encoding a transit peptide can be isolated from organelle-targeted proteins from any organism.
  • the transit peptide is isolated from an organism selected from the group consisting of the genera Acetabularia, Arabidopsis, Brassica, Capsicum, Chlamydo- monas, Cururbita, Dunaliella, Euglena, Flaveria, Glycine, Helianthus, Hordeum, Lemna, Lolium, Lycopersion, Malus, Medicago, Mesembryanthemum, Nicotiana, Oenotherea, Oryza, Petunia, Phaseolus, Physcomitrella, Pinus, Pisum, Raphanus, Silene, Sinapis, So- lanum, Spinacea, Stevia, Synechococcus, Triticum and Zea.
  • the nucleic acid sequence encoding the transit peptide is isolated from an organism selected from the group consisting of the species Acetabularia mediterranea, Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica campestris, Brassica napus, Capsicum annuum, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Cururbita moschata, Dunaliella salina, Dunaliella tertiolecta, Euglena gracilis, Flaveria trinervia, Gly- cine max, Helianthus annuus, Hordeum vulgare, Lemna gibba, Lolium perenne, Lycopersion esculentum, Malus domestica, Medicago falcata, Medicago sativa, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, Nicotiana sylvestris, Nicotiana tabacum, Oenotherea hookeri, Oryza sativa, Petun
  • nucleic acid sequences coding for transit peptides may be chemically synthesized either in part or wholly according to structure of transit peptide sequences disclosed in the prior art.
  • Such transit peptides encoding sequences can be used for the construction of other expression constructs.
  • the transit peptides advantageously used in the inventive process and which are part of the inventive nucleic acid sequences and proteins are typically 20 to 120 amino acids, preferably 25 to 110, 30 to 100 or 35 to 90 amino acids, more preferably 40 to 85 amino acids and most preferably 45 to 80 amino acids in length and functions post-translational to direct the protein to the plastid preferably to the chloroplast.
  • nucleic acid sequences encoding such transit peptides are localized upstream of nucleic acid sequence encoding the mature protein.
  • nucleic acid sequence encoding the mature protein For the correct molecular joining of the transit peptide encoding nucleic acid and the nucleic acid encoding the protein to be tar- geted it is sometimes necessary to introduce additional base pairs at the joining position, which forms restriction enzyme recognition sequences useful for the molecular joining of the different nucleic acid molecules. This procedure might lead to very few additional amino acids at the N-terminal of the mature imported protein, which usually and preferably do not interfere with the protein function.
  • the additional base pairs at the joining posi- tion which forms restriction enzyme recognition sequences have to be chosen with care, in order to avoid the formation of stop codons or codons which encode amino acids with a strong influence on protein folding, like e.g. proline. It is preferred that such additional codons encode small structural flexible amino acids such as glycine or alanine.
  • nucleic acid sequence coding for a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or 5, and its homologs as disclosed in table I, column 7 can be joined to a nucleic acid sequence encoding a transit peptide, e.g. if for the nucleic acid molecule in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated.
  • the nucleic acid sequence of the gene to be expressed and the nucleic acid sequence encoding the transit peptide are operably linked. Therefore the transit peptide is fused in frame to the nucleic acid sequence coding for a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or 5 and its homologs as disclosed in table I, column 7, e.g. if for the nucleic acid molecule in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated.
  • the proteins translated from said inventive nucleic acid sequences are a kind of fusion proteins that means the nucleic acid sequences encoding the transit peptide, for ex- ample the ones shown in table V, for example the last one of the table, are joint to a gene, e.g. the nucleic acid sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, e.g. if for the nucleic acid molecule in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated.
  • the person skilled in the art is able to join said sequences in a functional manner.
  • the transit peptide part is cleaved off from the protein part shown in table II, columns 5 and 7, during the transport preferably into the plastids.
  • All products of the cleavage of the preferred transit peptide shown in the last line of table V have preferably the N-terminal amino acid sequences QIA CSS or QIA EFQLTT in front of the start methionine of the protein mentioned in table II, columns 5 and 7.
  • Other short amino acid sequences of an range of 1 to 20 amino acids preferable 2 to 15 amino acids, more preferable 3 to 10 amino acids most preferably 4 to 8 amino acids are also possible in front of the start methionine of the gene, e.g. the protein mentioned in table II, columns 5 and 7.
  • Said short amino acid sequence is preferred in the case of the expression of Escherichia coli genes.
  • amino acid sequence QIA EFQLTT the six amino acids in front of the start methionine are stemming from the LIC cassette.
  • Said short amino acid sequence is preferred in the case of the expression of S. cerevisiae genes.
  • the skilled worker knows that other short sequences are also useful in the expres- sion of the genes mentioned in table I, columns 5 and 7. Furthermore the skilled worker is aware of the fact that there is not a need for such short sequences in the expression of the genes.
  • nucleic acids of the invention can directly be introduced into the plastidic genome, e.g. for which in column 6 of table II the term "plastidic" is indicated. Therefore in a preferred embodiment the gene, e.g. the nucleic acid sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7 are directly introduced and expressed in plastids, particularly if in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated.
  • the gene e.g. the nucleic acid molecules as shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, e.g. if in column 6 of table I the term "mitochondric" is indicated, used in the inventive process are transformed into mitochondria, which are metabolic active.
  • the gene e.g. the nucleic acid sequences as shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, e.g. if in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated, are introduced into an expression cassette using a preferably a promoter and termi- nator, which are active in plastids, preferably a chloroplast promoter.
  • promoters include the psbA promoter from the gene from spinach or pea, the rbcL promoter, and the atpB promoter from corn.
  • the process of the present invention comprises one or more of the following steps:
  • Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein and conferring increased yield e.g. increasinga yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof ;
  • Further gene conversion methods can be used to disrupt repressor elements or to enhance to activity of positive elements- positive elements can be randomly introduced in plants by T-DNA or transposon mutagenesis and lines can be identified in which the positive elements have been in- tegrated near to a gene of the invention, the expression of which is thereby enhanced; and/or (i) modulating growth conditions of the plant in such a manner, that the expression or activity of the gene encoding a polypeptide as mentioned in (a), or the protein itself is enhanced;
  • said mRNA is encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention and/or the protein conferring the increased expression of a protein encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention alone or linked to a transit nucleic acid se- quence or transit peptide encoding nucleic acid sequence or the polypeptide having the herein mentioned activity, e.g. conferring with increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield- related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof after increasing the expression or activity of the encoded polypeptide or having the activity of a polypeptide having an activity as the protein as shown in table II column 3 or its homologs.
  • the amount of mRNA or polypeptide in a cell or a compartment of an organism correlates with the amount of encoded protein and thus with the overall activity of the encoded protein in said volume. Said correlation is not always linear, the activity in the volume is dependent on the stability of the molecules or the presence of activating or inhibiting co-factors.
  • the activity of the abovementioned proteins and/or polypeptides encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention can be increased in various ways. For example, the activity in an organism or in a part thereof, like a cell, is increased via increas- ing the gene product number, e.g.
  • a mutation in the catalytic centre of an polypeptide of the invention e.g. as enzyme, can modulate the turn over rate of the enzyme, e.g.
  • a knock out of an essential amino acid can lead to a reduced or completely knock out activity of the enzyme, or the deletion or mutation of regulator binding sites can reduce a negative regulation like a feedback inhibition (or a substrate inhibition, if the sub- strate level is also increased).
  • the specific activity of an enzyme of the present invention can be increased such that the turn over rate is increased or the binding of a co-factor is improved. Improving the stability of the encoding mRNA or the protein can also increase the activity of a gene product.
  • the stimulation of the activity is also under the scope of the term "increased activity".
  • the regulation of the abovementioned nucleic acid sequences may be modified so that gene expression is increased. This can be achieved advantageously by means of heterologous regulatory sequences or by modifying, for example mutating, the natural regulatory sequences which are present. The advantageous methods may also be combined with each other.
  • an activity of a gene product in an organism or part thereof, in particular in a plant cell or organelle of a plant cell, a plant, or a plant tissue or a part thereof or in a microorganism can be increased by increasing the amount of the specific encoding mRNA or the corresponding protein in said organism or part thereof.
  • a modification i.e. an increase
  • an increase in activity in an organism or a part thereof can be caused by adding a gene product or a precursor or an activator or an agonist to the media or nutrition or can be caused by introducing said subjects into a organism, transient or stable.
  • Fur- thermore such an increase can be reached by the introduction of the inventive nucleic acid sequence or the encoded protein in the correct cell compartment for example into the nucleus or cytoplasm respectively or into plastids either by transformation and/or targeting.
  • the increased yield e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell in the plant or a part thereof, e.g. in a cell, a tissue, a organ, an organelle, the cytoplasm etc., is achieved by increasing the endogenous level of the polypeptide of the invention.
  • the present invention relates to a process wherein the gene copy number of a gene encoding the polynucleotide or nucleic acid molecule of the invention is increased.
  • the endogenous level of the polypeptide of the invention can for example be increased by modifying the transcriptional or translational regulation of the polypeptide.
  • the increased yield e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency
  • intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait of the plant or part thereof can be altered by targeted or random mutagenesis of the endogenous genes of the inven- tion.
  • homologous recombination can be used to either introduce positive regulatory elements like for plants the 35S enhancer into the promoter or to remove repressor elements form regulatory regions.
  • gene conversion like methods described by Kochevenko and Willmitzer (Plant Physiol. 132 (1), 174 (2003)) and citations therein can be used to disrupt repressor elements or to enhance to activity of positive regulatory elements.
  • positive elements can be randomly introduced in (plant) genomes by T-DNA or transposon mutagenesis and lines can be screened for, in which the positive elements have been integrated near to a gene of the invention, the expression of which is thereby enhanced.
  • the activation of plant genes by random integrations of enhancer elements has been described by Hayashi et al. (Science 258,1350 (1992)) or Weigel et al. (Plant Physiol. 122, 1003 (2000)) and others recited therein.
  • the enhancement of positive regulatory elements or the disruption or weakening of negative regulatory elements can also be achieved through common mutagenesis techniques: The production of chemically or radiation mutated populations is a common technique and known to the skilled worker.
  • the expression level can be increased if the endogenous genes encoding a polypeptide conferring an increased expression of the polypeptide of the present invention, in particular genes comprising the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention, are modified via homologous recombination, Tilling approaches or gene conversion. It also possible to add as mentioned herein targeting sequences to the inventive nu- cleic acid sequences.
  • Regulatory sequences in addition to a target sequence or part thereof can be operatively linked to the coding region of an endogenous protein and control its transcription and translation or the stability or decay of the encoding mRNA or the expressed protein.
  • promoter, UTRs, splicing sites, processing signals, polyadenylation sites, terminators, enhancers, repressors, post transcriptional or posttranslational modification sites can be changed, added or amended.
  • enhancer elements has been described by Hayashi et al. (Science 258, 1350(1992)) or Weigel et al. (Plant Physiol.
  • the expression level of the endogenous protein can be modulated by replacing the endogenous promoter with a stronger transgenic promoter or by replacing the endogenous 3'UTR with a 3'UTR, which provides more stability without amending the coding region.
  • the transcriptional regulation can be modulated by introduction of an artificial transcription factor as described in the examples. Alternative promoters, terminators and UTR are described below.
  • an endogenous polypeptide having above-mentioned activity e.g. having the activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or of the polypeptide of the invention, e.g. conferring increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrin- sic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, corresponding, e.g.
  • non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof after increase of expression or activity in the cytoplasm and/or in an organelle like a plastid can also be increased by introducing a synthetic transcription factor, which binds close to the coding region of the gene encoding the protein as shown in table II, column 3 and activates its transcription.
  • organisms are used in which one of the abovementioned genes, or one of the abovementioned nucleic acids, is mutated in a way that the activity of the encoded gene products is less influenced by cellular factors, or not at all, in comparison with the not mutated proteins.
  • well known regulation mechanism of enzyme activity are substrate inhibition or feed back regulation mechanisms. Ways and techniques for the introduction of substitution, deletions and additions of one or more bases, nucleotides or amino acids of a corresponding sequence are described herein below in the corresponding paragraphs and the references listed there, e.g. in Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning, Cold Spring Harbour, NY, 1989.
  • the person skilled in the art will be able to identify regulation domains and binding sites of regulators by comparing the sequence of the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention or the expression product thereof with the state of the art by computer software means which comprise algorithms for the identifying of binding sites and regulation domains or by introducing into a nucleic acid molecule or in a protein systematically mutations and assaying for those mutations which will lead to an increased specific activity or an increased activity per volume, in particular per cell.
  • nucleic acid molecule of the invention or a polypeptide of the invention derived from a evolutionary distantly related organism as e.g. using a prokaryotic gene in a eukaryotic host, as in these cases the regulation mechanism of the host cell may not weaken the activity (cellular or specific) of the gene or its expression product.
  • the mutation is introduced in such a way that increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for ex- ample an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait are not adversely affected.
  • increased yield e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for ex- ample an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait are not adversely affected.
  • the invention provides that the above methods can be performed such that enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related traits increased, wherein particularly the tolerance to low temperature is increased.
  • abiotic environmental stress for example drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or nutrient use efficiency
  • intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related traits increased, wherein particularly the tolerance to low temperature is increased.
  • the invention is not limited to specific nucleic acids, specific polypeptides, specific cell types, specific host cells, specific conditions or specific methods etc. as such, but may vary and numerous modifications and variations therein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing specific embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting.
  • proteins are generally composed of one or more functional regions, commonly termed domains. Different combinations of domains give rise to the diverse range of proteins found in nature. The identification of domains that occur within proteins can therefore provide insights into their function.
  • Pfam-A entries are high quality, manually curated families.
  • the Pfam database is a large collection of protein families, each represented by multiple sequence alignments and hidden Markov models (HMMs). "(see: The Pfam protein families database: R.D. Finn, et al., Nucleic Acids Research (2010), Database Issue 38:D211 -222).
  • the Pfam protein families database is a large collection of more than ten thousand protein families and is available under http://pfam.sanger.ac.uk/.
  • HMMs Profile Hidden Markov Models
  • Pfam database is constructed from an alignment of a representative set of se- quences for each protein domain, called a seed alignment.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF01789.9 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 385 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF01789.9, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 385, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF01789.9, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF03171.13 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 505 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF03171.13, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 505, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF03171.13, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00160.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%,
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 673, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00160.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF05703.4 and PF08458.3 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1629 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF05703.4 and PF08458.3, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1629, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF05703.4 and PF08458.3, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00288.19 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%,
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide en- coded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1710, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00288.19, and the polypeptide's expression is confer- ring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00459.18 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 2227 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00459.18, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 2227, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00459.18, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00108.16 and PF02803.1 1 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 2458 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00108.16 and PF02803.1 1 , and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 2458, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00108.16 and PF02803.1 1 , and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF01246.13 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%,
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide en- coded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 3464, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF01246.13, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00464.12 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 3795 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00464.12, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 3795, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00464.12, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF02664.8 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 4631 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF02664.8, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 4631 , i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF02664.8, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00071.15 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%,
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5070, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00071.15, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF01918.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5839 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF01918.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5839, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF01918.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF06426.7 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5983 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF06426.7, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5983, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF06426.7, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00125.17 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 6495 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00125.17, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 6495, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00125.17, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00069.18 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7435 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00069.18, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7435, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00069.18, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00847.13 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7514 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00847.13, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7514, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00847.13, and the polypeptide's expression is confer- ring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF03345.7 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7546 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF03345.7, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7546, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF03345.7, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF04755.5 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8288 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF04755.5, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8288, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF04755.5, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF01501.13 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7865 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF01501.13, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide en- coded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7865, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF01501.13, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF06200.7 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8065 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF06200.7, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8065, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF06200.7, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00829.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8105 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00829.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8105, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00829.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00447.10 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8207 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00447.10, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8207, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00447.10, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF0001 1.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8409 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00011.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8409, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF0001 1.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF001 18.17 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8843 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF001 18.17, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8843, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF001 18.17, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00152.13 and PF01336.18 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 9982 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00152.13 and PF01336.18, and confer- ring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 9982, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00152.13 and PF01336.18, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00582.19 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 10881 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00582.19, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00582.19, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00011.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 10966 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF0001 1.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 10966, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF0001 1.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF02171.10, PF02170.15, and PF08699.3 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF02171.10, PF02170.15, and
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising fur- ther one or more of the Pfam domains PF02171.10, PF02170.15, and PF08699.3, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF02798.13 and PF00043.18 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also re- lates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1 1753 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF02798.13 and PF00043.18, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1 1753, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF02798.13 and PF00043.18, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF03760.8 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12197 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF03760.8, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12197, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF03760.8, and the polypeptide's expression is con- ferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF04564.8 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12317 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF04564.8, and conferring the in- crease of the yield of a plant as described herein.
  • the invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
  • the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12317, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising fur- ther one or more of the Pfam domains PF04564.8, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.

Landscapes

  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Genetics & Genomics (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Organic Chemistry (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Molecular Biology (AREA)
  • Biophysics (AREA)
  • Bioinformatics & Cheminformatics (AREA)
  • Zoology (AREA)
  • Biochemistry (AREA)
  • Wood Science & Technology (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Biotechnology (AREA)
  • Biomedical Technology (AREA)
  • Botany (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Cell Biology (AREA)
  • Plant Pathology (AREA)
  • Gastroenterology & Hepatology (AREA)
  • Microbiology (AREA)
  • Proteomics, Peptides & Aminoacids (AREA)
  • Medicinal Chemistry (AREA)
  • Breeding Of Plants And Reproduction By Means Of Culturing (AREA)
  • Micro-Organisms Or Cultivation Processes Thereof (AREA)

Abstract

A method for producing a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding wild type plant whereby the method comprises at least the following step: increasing or generating in a plant or a part thereof one or more activities of a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'- phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 5OS chloroplast ribosomal protein L21, 57972199. R01.1 -protein, 60952769. R01.1 - protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S-transferase, GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl- tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI- interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding- protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin- conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein.

Description

Plants with increased yield
[0001] The invention disclosed herein provides a method for producing a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding wild type plant comprising increasing or generating one or more activities in a plant or a part thereof. The present invention further relates to nucleic acids enhancing or improving one or more traits of a transgenic plant, and cells, progenies, seeds and pollen derived from such plants or parts, as well as methods of making and methods of using such plant cell(s) or plant(s), progenies, seed(s) or pollen. Particularly, said improved trait(s) are manifested in an increased yield, preferably by im- proving one or more yield-related trait(s).
Background of the Invention
[0002] Under field conditions, plant performance, for example in terms of growth, development, biomass accumulation and seed generation, depends on a plant's tolerance and acclimation ability to numerous environmental conditions, changes and stresses. Since the beginning of agriculture and horticulture, there was a need for improving plant traits in crop cultivation. Breeding strategies foster crop properties to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses, to improve nutrient use efficiency and to alter other intrinsic crop specific yield parameters, i.e. increasing yield by applying technical advances. Plants are sessile organ- isms and consequently need to cope with various environmental stresses. Biotic stresses such as plant pests and pathogens on the one hand, and abiotic environmental stresses on the other hand are major limiting factors for plant growth and productivity, thereby limiting plant cultivation and geographical distribution. Plants exposed to different stresses typically have low yields of plant material, like seeds, fruit or other produces. Crop losses and crop yield losses caused by abiotic and biotic stresses represent a significant economic and political factor and contribute to food shortages, particularly in many underdeveloped countries.
[0003] Conventional means for crop and horticultural improvements today utilize selective breeding techniques to identify plants with desirable characteristics. Advances in mo- lecular biology have allowed modifying the germplasm of plants in a specific way.-For example, the modification of a single gene, resulted in several cases in a significant increase in e.g. stress tolerance as well as other yield-related traits.
[0004] Agricultural biotechnology has attempted to meet humanity's growing needs through genetic modifications of plants that could increase crop yield, for example, by con- ferring better tolerance to abiotic stress responses or by increasing biomass.
[0005] Agricultural biotechnologists use measurements of other parameters that indicate the potential impact of a transgene on crop yield. For forage crops like alfalfa, silage corn, and hay, the plant biomass correlates with the total yield. For grain crops, however, other parameters have been used to estimate yield, such as plant size, as measured by total plant dry weight, above-ground dry weight, above-ground fresh weight, leaf area, stem volume, plant height, rosette diameter, leaf length, root length, root mass, tiller number, and leaf number. Plant size at an early developmental stage will typically correlate with plant size later in development. A larger plant with a greater leaf area can typically absorb more light and carbon dioxide than a smaller plant and therefore will likely gain a greater weight during the same period. There is a strong genetic component to plant size and growth rate, and so for a range of diverse genotypes plant size under one environmental condition is likely to correlate with size under another. In this way a standard environment is used to approximate the diverse and dynamic environments encountered at different locations and times by crops in the field.
[0006] Plants that exhibit tolerance of one abiotic stress often exhibit tolerance of another environmental stress. This phenomenon of cross-tolerance is not understood at a mechanistic level. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to expect that plants exhibiting enhanced tolerance to low temperature, e.g. chilling temperatures and/or freezing temperatures, due to the expression of a transgene may also exhibit tolerance to drought and/or salt and/or other abiotic stresses..
[0007] Some genes that are involved in stress responses, water use, and/or biomass in plants have been characterized, but to date, success at developing transgenic crop plants with improved yield has been limited, and no such plants have been commercialized.
[0008] Consequently, there is a need to identify genes which confer resistance to various combinations of stresses or which confer improved yield under optimal and/or subopti- mal growth conditions.
[0009] Accordingly, in one embodiment, the present invention provides a method for producing a plant having an increased yield as compared to a corresponding wild type plant whereby the method comprises at least the following step: increasing or generating in a plant one or more activities of a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2- oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'- phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argo- naute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein,
AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cyto- chrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S- transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S- ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein in the sub-cellular compartment and tissue indicated herein below.
[0010] Accordingly, the invention provides a transgenic plant that over-expresses an isolated polynucleotide as identified in Table I, or a homolog thereof, in the sub-cellular compartment and tissue as indicated herein. The transgenic plant of the invention demon- strates an improved or increased harvestable yield as compared to a wild type variety of the plant.
[0011] Accordingly, the invention provides a method for producing a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding wild type plant comprising at least one of the steps selected from the group consisting of: (i) increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising at least one polypeptide motif or consensus sequence as depicted in column 5 or 7 of Table II or of Table IV, respectively; or (ii) increasing or generating the activity of an expression product of one or more isolated polynucleotide(s) comprising one or more polynucleotide(s) as depicted in column 5 or 7 of Table I.
[0012] The invention further provides a method for increasing yield of a crop plant, the method comprising the following steps:(i) increasing or generating of the expression of at least one polynucleotide; and/or (ii) increasing or generating the expression of an expression product encoded by at least one polynucleotide; and/or (iii) increasing or generating one or more activities of an expression product encoded by at least one polynucleotide, wherein the polynucleotide is selected from the group consisting of:
(a) an isolated polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide shown in column 5 or 7 of table II;
(b) an isolated polynucleotide shown in column 5 or 7 of table I;
(c) an isolated polynucleotide, which, as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be derived from a polypeptide sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof ;
(d) an isolated polynucleotide having 30 or more, for example 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% (percent) or more identity with the sequence of a polynucleotide shown in column 5 or 7 of table I and conferring an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(e) an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having 30 or more, for example 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or more identity with the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the isolated polynucleotide of (a) to (c) and having the activity represented by a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I and conferring an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(f) an isolated polynucleotide which hybridizes with an isolated polynucleotide of (a) to (c) under stringent hybridization conditions and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(g) an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide which can be isolated with the aid of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies made against a polypeptide encoded by one of the isolated polynucleotides of (a) to (e) and which has the activity represented by the polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I;
(h) an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence or one or more polypeptide motifs as shown in column 7 of table IV and pref- erably having the activity represented by a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV;
(i) an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein as depicted in column 5 of table II and conferring increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(j) an isolated polynucleotide which is obtained by amplifying a cDNA library or a genomic library using primers derived from the polynucleotides sequences in Tables 1 or 2 and having the activity represented by a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV; and
(k) an isolated polynucleotide which is obtainable by screening a suitable nucleic acid library under stringent hybridization conditions with a probe comprising a complementary sequence of a isolated polynucleotide of (a) or (b) or with a fragment thereof, having 15nt or more, preferably 20nt, 30nt, 50nt, 100nt, 200nt, or 500nt, 1000nt, 1500nt, 2000nt or 3000nt or more of a polynucleotide complementary to a polynucleotide sequence characterized in (a) to (e) and encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II.
[0013] Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for producing a transgenic plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant, comprising transforming a plant cell or a plant cell nucleus or a plant tissue to produce such a plant, with an isolated polynucleotide selected from the group consisting of:
(a) an isolated polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide shown in column 5 or 7 of table II;
(b) an isolated polynucleotide shown in column 5 or 7 of table I;
(c) an isolated polynucleotide, which, as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be derived from a polypeptide sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof ;
(d) an isolated polynucleotide having 30% or more, for example 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99 % or more identity with a polynucleotide shown in column 5 or 7 of table I and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(e) an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having 30% or more, for example 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or more identity with the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the isolated polynucleotide of (a) to (c) and having the activity represented by a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(f) an isolated polynucleotide which hybridizes with a isolated polynucleotide of (a) to (c) under stringent hybridization conditions and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(g) an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide which can be isolated with the aid of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies made against a polypeptide encoded by one of the isolated polynucleotides of (a) to (e) and having the activity represented by a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I;
(h) an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence or one or more polypeptide motifs as shown in column 7 of table IV and pref- erably having the activity represented by a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV;
(i) an isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein as depicted in column 5 of table II and conferring increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(j) an isolated polynucleotide which is obtained by amplifying a cDNA library or a genomic library using primers derived from the polynucleotide sequences in Tables 1 and 2 and having the activity represented by a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV; and
(k) an isolated polynucleotide which is obtainable by screening a suitable nucleic acid library under stringent hybridization conditions with a probe comprising a complementary sequence of an isolated polynucleotide of (a) or (b) or with a fragment thereof, having at least 20, 30, 50, 100, 200, 300, 500 or 1000 or more nt of a polynucleotide complementary to a polynucleotide sequence characterized in (a) to (e) and encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II,
and regenerating a transgenic plant from that transformed plant cell nucleus, plant cell or plant tissue with increased yield. Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments
[0014] A number of yield-related phenotypes are associated with yield of plants. In accordance with the invention, therefore, the genes identified in Table 1 , or homologs thereof, may be employed to enhance any yield-related phenotype. Increased yield may be deter- mined in field trials of transgenic plants and suitable control plants. Alternatively, a trans- gene's ability to increase yield may be determined in a model plant. An increased yield phenotype may be determined in the field test or in a model plant by measuring any one or any combination of the following phenotypes, in comparison to a control plant: yield of dry harvestable parts of the plant, yield of dry aerial harvestable parts of the plant, yield of un- derground dry harvestable parts of the plant, yield of fresh weight harvestable parts of the plant, yield of aerial fresh weight harvestable parts of the plant yield of underground fresh weight harvestable parts of the plant, yield of the plant's fruit (both fresh and dried), grain dry weight, yield of seeds (both fresh and dry), and the like.
[0015] The most basic yield-related phenotype is increased yield associated with the presence of the gene or a homolog thereof as a transgene in the plant, i.e., the intrinsic yield of the plant. Intrinsic yield capacity of a plant can be, for example, manifested in a field test or in a model system by demonstrating an improvement of seed yield (e.g. in terms of increased seed/ grain size, increased ear number, increased seed number per ear, im- provement of seed filling, improvement of seed composition, embryo and/or endosperm improvements, and the like); modification and improvement of inherent growth and development mechanisms of a plant (such as plant height, plant growth rate, pod number, pod position on the plant, number of internodes, incidence of pod shatter, efficiency of nodula- tion and nitrogen fixation, efficiency of carbon assimilation, improvement of seedling vigour/early vigour, enhanced efficiency of germination (under non-stressed conditions), improvement in plant architecture,
[0016] Increased yield-related phenotypes may also be measured to determine tolerance to abiotic environmental stress. Abiotic stresses include drought, low temperature, salinity, osmotic stress, shade, high plant density, mechanical stresses, and oxidative stress, and yield-related phenotypes are encompassed by tolerance to such abiotic stresses. Additional phenotypes that can be monitored to determine enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress include, without limitation, wilting; leaf browning; loss of turgor, which results in drooping of leaves or needles stems, and flowers; drooping and/or shed- ding of leaves or needles; the leaves are green but leaf angled slightly toward the ground compared with controls; leaf blades begun to fold (curl) inward; premature senescence of leaves or needles; loss of chlorophyll in leaves or needles and/or yellowing. Any of the yield-related phenotypes described above may be monitored in field tests or in model plants to demonstrate that a transgenic plant has increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress. In accordance with the invention, the genes identified in Table 1 , or homologs thereof, may be employed to enhance tolerance to abiotic environmental stress in a plant means that the plant, when confronted with abiotic environmental stress.
Definition Collection
[0017] An "yield-increasing activity" according to the invention refers to an activity selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl- D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01.1 -protein, 60952769. R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885- protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380- protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol syntha- se, glutathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial aspa- raginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen- evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans iso- merase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiqui- tin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein. A polypeptide conferring a yield-increasing activity can be encoded by a nucleic acid sequence as shown in table I, column 5 or 7, and/or comprises or consists of a polypeptide as depicted in table II, column 5 and 7, and/or can be amplified with the primer set shown in table III, column 7.
[0018] A "transgenic plant", as used herein, refers to a plant which contains a foreign nucleotide sequence inserted into either its nuclear genome or organelle genome. It encompasses further the offspring generations i.e. the T1 -, T2- and consecutively generations or BC1 -, BC2- and consecutively generation as well as crossbreeds thereof with non- transgenic or other transgenic plants.
[0019] "Improved adaptation" to environmental stress like e.g. drought, heat, nutrient depletion, freezing and/or chilling temperatures refers herein to an improved plant performance resulting in an increased yield, particularly with regard to one or more of the yield related traits as defined in more detail above.
[0020] A modification, i.e. an increase, can be caused by endogenous or exogenous factors. For example, an increase in activity in an organism or a part thereof can be caused by adding a gene product or a precursor or an activator or an agonist to the media or nutrition or can be caused by introducing said subjects into a organism, transient or stable. Furthermore such an increase can be reached by the introduction of the inventive nucleic acid sequence or the encoded protein in the correct cell compartment for example into the nu- cleus or cytoplasmic respectively or into plastids either by transformation and/or targeting.
[0021] For the purposes of the description of the present invention, the terms "cytoplasmic" and "non-targeted" shall indicate, that the nucleic acid of the invention is expressed without the addition of a non-natural transit peptide encoding sequence. A non- natural transit peptide encoding sequence is a sequence which is not a natural part of a nucleic acid of the invention, e.g. of the nucleic acids depicted in table I column 5 or 7, but is rather added by molecular manipulation steps as for example described in the example under "plastid targeted expression". Therefore the terms "cytoplasmic" and "non-targeted" shall not exclude a targeted localization to any cell compartment for the products of the inventive nucleic acid sequences by their naturally occurring sequence properties within the background of the transgenic organism. The sub-cellular location of the mature polypeptide derived from the enclosed sequences can be predicted by a skilled person for the organism (plant) by using software tools like TargetP (Emanuelsson et al., (2000), Predicting subcellular localization of proteins based on their N-terminal amino acid sequence., J.Mol. Biol. 300, 1005-1016.), ChloroP (Emanuelsson et al. (1999), ChloroP, a neural network-based method for predicting chloroplast transit peptides and their cleavage sites., Protein Science, 8: 978-984.) or other predictive software tools (Emanuelsson et al. (2007), Locating proteins in the cell using TargetP, SignalP, and related tools., Nature Protocols 2, 953-971 ).
[0022] The term "organelle" according to the invention shall mean for example "mitochondria" or "plastid". The term "plastid" according to the invention are intended to include various forms of plastids including proplastids, chloroplasts, chromoplasts, gerontoplasts, leucoplasts, amyloplasts, elaioplasts and etioplasts, preferably chloroplasts. They all have as a common ancestor the aforementioned proplasts.
[0023] The term "introduced" in the context of this specification shall mean the insertion of a nucleic acid sequence into the organism by means of a "transfection", "transduction" or preferably by "transformation".
[0024] A plastid, such as a chloroplast, has been "transformed" by an exogenous (preferably foreign) nucleic acid sequence if nucleic acid sequence has been introduced into the plastid that means that this sequence has crossed the membrane or the membranes of the plastid. The foreign DNA may be integrated (covalently linked) into plastid DNA making up the genome of the plastid, or it may remain not integrated (e.g., by including a chloroplast origin of replication). "Stably" integrated DNA sequences are those, which are inherited through plastid replication, thereby transferring new plastids, with the features of the inte- grated DNA sequence to the progeny.
[0025] As used herein, "plant" is meant to include not only a whole plant but also a part thereof i.e., one or more cells, and tissues, including for example, leaves, stems, shoots, roots, flowers, fruits and seeds.
[0026] The term "yield" as used herein generally refers to a measurable produce from a plant, particularly a crop. Yield and yield increase (in comparison to a n on -transformed starting or wild-type plant) can be measured in a number of ways, and it is understood that a skilled person will be able to apply the correct meaning in view of the particular embodiments, the particular crop concerned and the specific purpose or application concerned. The terms "improved yield" or "increased yield" can be used interchangeable.
[0027] As used herein, the term "improved yield" or the term "increased yield" means any improvement in the yield of any measured plant product, such as grain, fruit or fiber. In accordance with the invention, changes in different phenotypic traits may improve yield. For example, and without limitation, parameters such as floral organ development, root initiation, root biomass, seed number, seed weight, harvest index, tolerance to abiotic envi- ronmental stress, leaf formation, phototropism, apical dominance, and fruit development, are suitable measurements of improved yield. Increased yield includes higher fruit yields, higher seed yields, higher fresh matter production, and/or higher dry matter production.
[0028] Any increase in yield is an improved yield in accordance with the invention. For example, the improvement in yield can comprise a 0.1 %, 0.5%, 1 %, 3%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% or greater increase in any measured parameter. For example, an increase in the bu/acre yield of soybeans or corn derived from a crop comprising plants which are transgenic for the nucleotides and polypeptides of Table I, as compared with the bu/acre yield from untreated soybeans or corn cultivated under the same conditions, is an improved yield in accordance with the invention. The increased or im- proved yield can be achieved in the absence or presence of stress conditions.
[0029] For example, enhanced or increased "yield" refers to one or more yield parameters selected from the group consisting of biomass yield, dry biomass yield, aerial dry biomass yield, underground dry biomass yield, fresh-weight biomass yield, aerial fresh-weight biomass yield, underground fresh-weight biomass yield; enhanced yield of harvestable parts, either dry or fresh-weight or both, either aerial or underground or both; enhanced yield of crop fruit, either dry or fresh-weight or both, either aerial or underground or both; and preferably enhanced yield of seeds, either dry or fresh-weight or both, either aerial or underground or both. [0030] "Crop yield" is defined herein as the number of bushels of relevant agricultural product (such as grain, forage, or seed) harvested per acre. Crop yield is impacted by abiotic stresses, such as drought, heat, salinity, and cold stress, and by the size (biomass) of the plant.
[0031] The yield of a plant can depend on the specific plant/ crop of interest as well as its intended application (such as food production, feed production, processed food production, bio-fuel, biogas or alcohol production, or the like) of interest in each particular case. Thus, in one embodiment, yield can be calculated as harvest index (expressed as a ratio of the weight of the respective harvestable parts divided by the total biomass), harvestable parts weight per area (acre, square meter, or the like); and the like. The harvest index is the ratio of yield biomass to the total cumulative biomass at harvest. Harvest index is relatively stable under many environmental conditions, and so a robust correlation between plant size and grain yield is possible. As with abiotic stress tolerance, measurements of plant size in early development, under standardized conditions in a growth chamber or greenhouse, are standard practices to measure potential yield advantages conferred by the presence of a transgene.
[0032] Accordingly, the yield of a plant can be increased by improving one or more of the yield-related phenotypes or traits.
[0033] Such yield-related phenotypes or traits of a plant the improvement of which re- suits in increased yield comprise, without limitation, the increase of the intrinsic yield capacity of a plant, improved nutrient use efficiency, and/or increased stress tolerance.
[0034] For example, yield refers to biomass yield, e.g. to dry weight biomass yield and/or fresh-weight biomass yield. Biomass yield refers to the aerial or underground parts of a plant, depending on the specific circumstances (test conditions, specific crop of inter- est, application of interest, and the like). In one embodiment, biomass yield refers to the aerial and underground parts. Biomass yield may be calculated as fresh-weight, dry weight or a moisture adjusted basis. Biomass yield may be calculated on a per plant basis or in relation to a specific area (e.g. biomass yield per acre/ square meter/ or the like).
[0035] "Yield" can also refer to seed yield which can be measured by one or more of the following parameters: number of seeds or number of filled seeds (per plant or per area (acre/ square meter/ or the like)); seed filling rate (ratio between number of filled seeds and total number of seeds); number of flowers per plant; seed biomass or total seeds weight (per plant or per area (acre/square meter/ or the like); thousand kernel weight (TKW; extrapolated from the number of filled seeds counted and their total weight; an increase in TKW may be caused by an increased seed size, an increased seed weight, an increased embryo size, and/or an increased endosperm). Other parameters allowing to measure seed yield are also known in the art. Seed yield may be determined on a dry weight or on a fresh weight basis, or typically on a moisture adjusted basis, e.g. at 15.5 percent moisture.
[0036] For example, the term "increased yield" means that the a plant, exhibits an in- creased growth rate, e.g. in the absence or presence of abiotic environmental stress, compared to the corresponding wild-type plant.
[0037] An increased growth rate may be reflected inter alia by or confers an increased biomass production of the whole plant, or an increased biomass production of the aerial parts of a plant, or by an increased biomass production of the underground parts of a plant, or by an increased biomass production of parts of a plant, like stems, leaves, blossoms, fruits, and/or seeds.
[0038] A prolonged growth comprises survival and/or continued growth of the plant, at the moment when the non -transformed wild type organism shows visual symptoms of deficiency and/or death.
[0039] When the plant of the invention is a corn plant, increased yield for corn plants means, for example, increased seed yield, in particular for corn varieties used for feed or food. Increased seed yield of corn refers to an increased kernel size or weight, an increased kernel per ear, or increased ears per plant. Alternatively or in addition the cob yield may be increased, or the length or size of the cob is increased, or the kernel per cob ratio is improved.
[0040] When the plant of the invention is a soy plant, increased yield for soy plants means increased seed yield, in particular for soy varieties used for feed or food. Increased seed yield of soy refers for example to an increased kernel size or weight, an increased kernel per pod, or increased pods per plant.
[0041] When the plant of the invention is an oil seed rape (OSR) plant, increased yield for OSR plants means increased seed yield, in particular for OSR varieties used for feed or food. Increased seed yield of OSR refers to an increased seed size or weight, an increased seed number per silique, or increased siliques per plant.
[0042] When the plant of the invention is a cotton plant. Increased yield for cotton plants means increased lint yield. Increased lint yield of cotton refers in one embodiment to an increased length of lint.
[0043] Said increased yield can typically be achieved by enhancing or improving, one or more yield-related traits of the plant. Such yield-related traits of a plant comprise, without limitation, the increase of the intrinsic yield capacity of a plant, improved nutrient use efficiency, and/or increased stress tolerance, in particular increased abiotic stress tolerance.
[0044] Intrinsic yield capacity of a plant can be, for example, manifested by improving the specific (intrinsic) seed yield (e.g. in terms of increased seed/ grain size, increased ear number, increased seed number per ear, improvement of seed filling, improvement of seed composition, embryo and/or endosperm improvements, or the like); modification and improvement of inherent growth and development mechanisms of a plant (such as plant height, plant growth rate, pod number, pod position on the plant, number of internodes, incidence of pod shatter, efficiency of nodulation and nitrogen fixation, efficiency of carbon assimilation, improvement of seedling vigour/early vigour, enhanced efficiency of germination (under stressed or non-stressed conditions), improvement in plant architecture, cell cycle modifications, photosynthesis modifications, various signaling pathway modifications, modification of transcriptional regulation, modification of translational regulation, modification of enzyme activities, and the like); and/or the like.
[0045] The improvement or increase of stress tolerance of a plant can for example be manifested by improving or increasing a plant's tolerance against stress, particularly abiotic stress. In the present application, abiotic stress refers generally to abiotic environmental conditions a plant is typically confronted with, including, but not limited to, drought (toler- ance to drought may be achieved as a result of improved water use efficiency), heat, low temperatures and cold conditions (such as freezing and chilling conditions), salinity, osmotic stress, shade, high plant density, mechanical stress, oxidative stress, and the like.
[0046] The increased plant yield can also be mediated by increasing the "nutrient use efficiency of a plant", e.g. by improving the use efficiency of nutrients including, but not limited to, phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen. Further, higher yields may be obtained with current or standard levels of nitrogen use
[0047] Generally, the term "increased tolerance to stress" can be defined as survival of plants, and/or higher yield production, under stress conditions as compared to a non- transformed wild type or starting plant: For example, the plant of the invention or produced according to the method of the invention is better adapted to the stress conditions. "
[0048] During its life-cycle, a plant is generally confronted with a diversity of environmental conditions. Any such conditions, which may, under certain circumstances, have an impact on plant yield, are herein referred to as "stress" condition. Environmental stresses may generally be divided into biotic and abiotic (environmental) stresses. Unfavorable nutrient conditions are sometimes also referred to as "environmental stress". The present invention does also contemplate solutions for this kind of environmental stress, e.g. referring to increased nutrient use efficiency.
[0049] For the purposes of the description of the present invention, the terms "en- hanced tolerance to abiotic stress", "enhanced resistance to abiotic environmental stress", "enhanced tolerance to environmental stress", "improved adaptation to environmental stress" and other variations and expressions similar in its meaning are used interchangeably and refer, without limitation, to an improvement in tolerance to one or more abiotic environmental stress(es) as described herein and as compared to a corresponding origin or wild type plant or a part thereof.
[0050] The term abiotic stress tolerance(s) refers for example low temperature tolerance, drought tolerance or improved water use efficiency (WUE), heat tolerance, salt stress tolerance and others. Studies of a plant's response to desiccation, osmotic shock, and temperature extremes are also employed to determine the plant's tolerance or resistance to abiotic stresses. Water use efficiency (WUE) is a parameter often correlated with drought tolerance. In selecting traits for improving crops, a decrease in water use, without a change in growth would have particular merit in an irrigated agricultural system where the water input costs were high. An increase in growth without a corresponding jump in water use would have applicability to all agricultural systems. In many agricultural systems where wa- ter supply is not limiting, an increase in growth, even if it came at the expense of an increase in water use also increases yield.
[0051] Drought stress means any environmental stress which leads to a lack of water in plants or reduction of water supply to plants, including a secondary stress by low temperature and/or salt, and/or a primary stress during drought or heat, e.g. desiccation etc.
[0052] Unless otherwise specified, the terms "polynucleotides", "nucleic acid" and "nucleic acid molecule" are interchangeably in the present context. Unless otherwise specified, the terms "peptide", "polypeptide" and "protein" are interchangeably in the present context. The term "sequence" may relate to polynucleotides, nucleic acids, nucleic acid molecules, peptides, polypeptides and proteins, depending on the context in which the term "sequence" is used. The terms "gene(s)", "polynucleotide", "nucleic acid sequence", "nucleotide sequence", or "nucleic acid molecule(s)" as used herein refers to a polymeric form of nucleotides of any length, either ribonucleotides or deoxyribonucleotides. The terms "gene(s)", "polynucleotide", "nucleic acid sequence", "nucleotide sequence", or "nucleic acid molecule^)" as used herein include known types of modifications, for example, methylation, "caps", substitutions of one or more of the naturally occurring nucleotides with an analogue. Preferably, the DNA or RNA sequence comprises a coding sequence encoding the herein defined polypeptide.
[0053] As also used herein, the terms "nucleic acid" and "nucleic acid molecule" are intended to include DNA molecules (e.g. cDNA or genomic DNA) and RNA molecules (e.g. mRNA) and analogs of the DNA or RNA generated using nucleotide analogs. The nucleic acid molecule can be single-stranded or double-stranded.
[0054] An "isolated" nucleic acid molecule is one that is substantially separated from other nucleic acid molecules, which are present in the natural source of the nucleic acid. That means other nucleic acid molecules are present in an amount less than 5% based on weight of the amount of the desired nucleic acid, preferably less than 2% by weight, more preferably less than 1 % by weight, most preferably less than 0.5% by weight. Preferably, an "isolated" nucleic acid is free of some of the sequences that naturally flank the nucleic acid (i.e., sequences located at the 5' and 3' ends of the nucleic acid) in the genomic DNA of the organism from which the nucleic acid is derived. For example, in various embodiments, the isolated yield increasing, for example, low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related protein encoding nucleic acid molecule can contain less than about 5 kb, 4 kb, 3 kb, 2 kb, 1 kb, 0.5 kb or 0.1 kb of nucleotide sequences which naturally flank the nucleic acid molecule in genomic DNA of the cell from which the nucleic acid is derived. Moreover, an "isolated" nucleic acid molecule, such as a cDNA molecule, can be free from some of the other cellular material with which it is naturally associated, or culture medium when produced by recombinant techniques, or chemical precursors or other chemicals when chemically synthesized.
[0055] A "coding sequence" is a nucleotide sequence, which is transcribed into an RNA, e.g. a regulatory RNA, such as a miRNA, a ta-siRNA, co-suppression molecule, an RNAi, a ribozyme, etc. or into a mRNA which is translated into a polypeptide when placed under the control of appropriate regulatory sequences. The boundaries of the coding sequence are determined by a translation start codon at the 5'-terminus and a translation stop codon at the 3'-terminus. A coding sequence can include, but is not limited to mRNA, cDNA, recombinant nucleotide sequences or genomic DNA, while introns may be present as well under certain circumstances.
[0056] As used in the present context a nucleic acid molecule may also encompass the untranslated sequence located at the 3' and at the 5' end of the coding gene region, for ex- ample 2000, preferably less, e.g. 500, preferably 200, especially preferably 100, nucleotides of the sequence upstream of the 5' end of the coding region and for example 300, preferably less, e.g. 100, preferably 50, especially preferably 20, nucleotides of the sequence downstream of the 3' end of the coding gene region. [0057] "Polypeptide" refers to a polymer of amino acid (amino acid sequence) and does not refer to a specific length of the molecule. Thus, peptides and oligopeptides are included within the definition of polypeptide. This term does also refer to or include post-translational modifications of the polypeptide, for example, glycosylations, acetylations, phosphorylations and the like. Included within the definition are, for example, polypeptides containing one or more analogs of an amino acid (including, for example, unnatural amino acids, etc.), polypeptides with substituted linkages, as well as other modifications known in the art, both naturally occurring and non-naturally occurring. An "isolated" polynucleotide or nucleic acid molecule is separated from other polynucleotides or nucleic acid molecules, which are pre- sent in the natural source of the nucleic acid molecule. An isolated nucleic acid molecule may be a chromosomal fragment of several kb, or preferably, a molecule only comprising the coding region of the gene. Accordingly, an isolated nucleic acid molecule of the invention may comprise chromosomal regions, which are adjacent 5' and 3' or further adjacent chromosomal regions, but preferably comprises no such sequences which naturally flank the nucleic acid molecule sequence in the genomic or chromosomal context in the organism from which the nucleic acid molecule originates (for example sequences which are adjacent to the regions encoding the 5'- and 3'-UTRs of the nucleic acid molecule). An "isolated" or "purified" polypeptide or biologically active portion thereof is free of some of the cellular material when produced by recombinant DNA techniques, or chemical precursors or other chemicals when chemically synthesized. The language "substantially free of cellular material" includes preparations of a protein in which the polypeptide is separated from some of the cellular components of the cells in which it is naturally or recombinantly produced.
[0058] The term "table I" or„table 1 " used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table I A and table I B. The term "table II" used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table II A and table II B. The term "table I A" used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table I A. The term "table I B" used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table I B. The term "table II A" used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table II A. The term "table II B" used in this specification is to be taken to specify the content of table II B.
[0059] The terms "comprise" or "comprising" and grammatical variations thereof when used in this specification are to be taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components or groups thereof, but not to preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.
[0060] In accordance with the invention, a protein or polypeptide has the "activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3" if its de novo activity, or its increased expression directly or indirectly leads to and confers increased yield, e.g. to an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant and the protein has the above mentioned activities of a protein as shown in table II, column 3.
[0061] Throughout the specification the activity or preferably the biological activity of such a protein or polypeptide or an nucleic acid molecule or sequence encoding such pro- tein or polypeptide is identical or similar if it still has the biological or enzymatic activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3, or which has 10% or more of the original enzymatic activity, preferably 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, particularly preferably 60%, 70%, 80% most particularly preferably 90%, 95 %, 98%, 99% or more in comparison to a protein as shown in table II, column 3 of S. cerevisiae or E. coli or Synechocystis sp. or A. thaliana.
[0062] In another embodiment the biological or enzymatic activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3, has 100% or more of the original enzymatic activity, preferably 1 10%, 120%, 130%, 150%, particularly preferably 150%, 200%, 300% or more in comparison to a protein as shown in table II, column 3 of S. cerevisiae or E. coli or Synechocystis sp. or A. thaliana.
[0063] The terms "increased", "raised", "extended", "enhanced", "improved" or "amplified" relate to a corresponding change of a property in a plant, an organism, a part of an organism such as a tissue, seed, root, leave, flower etc. or in a cell and are interchangeable. Preferably, the overall activity in the volume is increased or enhanced in cases if the increase or enhancement is related to the increase or enhancement of an activity of a gene product, independent whether the amount of gene product or the specific activity of the gene product or both is increased or enhanced or whether the amount, stability or translation efficacy of the nucleic acid sequence or gene encoding for the gene product is increased or enhanced.
[0064] The terms "increase" relate to a corresponding change of a property an organism or in a part of a plant, an organism, such as a tissue, seed, root, leave, flower etc. or in a cell. Preferably, the overall activity in the volume is increased in cases the increase relates to the increase of an activity of a gene product, independent whether the amount of gene product or the specific activity of the gene product or both is increased or generated or whether the amount, stability or translation efficacy of the nucleic acid sequence or gene encoding for the gene product is increased. The terms "increase" include the change of said property in only parts of the subject of the present invention, for example, the modification can be found in compartment of a cell, like a organelle, or in a part of a plant, like tissue, seed, root, leave, flower etc. but is not detectable if the overall subject, i.e. complete cell or plant, is tested. Accordingly, the term "increase" means that the specific activity of an enzyme as well as the amount of a compound or metabolite, e.g. of a polypeptide, a nucleic acid molecule of the invention or an encoding mRNA or DNA, can be increased in a volume. The term "increase" includes, that a compound or an activity, especially an activity, is introduced into a cell, the cytoplasm or a sub-cellular compartment or organelle de novo or that the compound or the activity, especially an activity, has not been detected before, in other words it is "generated". Accordingly, in the following, the term "increasing" also comprises the term "generating" or "stimulating". The increased activity manifests itself in increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low tem- perature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof.
[0065] Under "change of a property" it is understood that the activity, expression level or amount of a gene product or the metabolite content is changed in a specific volume relative to a corresponding volume of a control, reference or wild type, including the de novo creation of the activity or expression.
[0066] "Amount of protein or mRNA" is understood as meaning the molecule number of polypeptides or mRNA molecules in an organism, especially a plant, a tissue, a cell or a cell compartment. "Increase" in the amount of a protein means the quantitative increase of the molecule number of said protein in an organism, especially a plant, a tissue, a cell or a cell compartment such as an organelle like a plastid or mitochondria or part thereof - for example by one of the methods described herein below - in comparison to a wild type, control or reference.
[0067] The increase in molecule number amounts preferably to 1 % or more, preferably to 10% or more, more preferably to 30% or more, especially preferably to 50%, 70% or more, very especially preferably to 100%, most preferably to 500% or more. However, a de novo expression is also regarded as subject of the present invention.
[0068] The terms "wild type", "control" or "reference" are exchangeable and can be a cell or a part of organisms such as an organelle like a chloroplast or a tissue, or an organism, in particular a plant, which was not modified or treated according to the herein described process according to the invention. Accordingly, the cell or a part of organisms such as an organelle like a chloroplast or a tissue, or an organism, in particular a plant used as wild type, control or reference corresponds to the cell, organism, plant or part thereof as much as possible and is in any other property but in the result of the process of the invention as identical to the subject matter of the invention as possible. Thus, the wild type, control or reference is treated identically or as identical as possible, saying that only conditions or properties might be different which do not influence the quality of the tested property.
[0069] Preferably, any comparison is carried out under analogous conditions. The term "analogous conditions" means that all conditions such as, for example, culture or growing conditions, soil, nutrient, water content of the soil, temperature, humidity or surrounding air or soil, assay conditions (such as buffer composition, temperature, substrates, pathogen strain, concentrations and the like) are kept identical between the experiments to be com- pared.
[0070] The "reference", "control", or "wild type" is preferably a subject, e.g. an organelle, a cell, a tissue, an organism, in particular a plant, which was not modified or treated according to the herein described process of the invention and is in any other property as similar to the subject matter of the invention as possible. The reference, control or wild type is in its genome, transcriptome, proteome or metabolome as similar as possible to the subject of the present invention. Preferably, the term "reference-" "control-" or "wild type-"-organelle, - cell, -tissue or -organism, in particular plant, relates to an organelle, cell, tissue or organism, in particular plant, which is nearly genetically identical to the organelle, cell, tissue or organism, in particular plant, of the present invention or a part thereof preferably 90% or more, e.g. 95%, more preferred are 98%, even more preferred are 99,00%, in particular
99,10%, 99,30%, 99,50%, 99,70%, 99,90%, 99,99%, 99,999% or more. Most preferable the "reference", "control", or "wild type" is a subject, e.g. an organelle, a cell, a tissue, an organism, in particular a plant, which is genetically identical to the organism, in particular plant, cell, a tissue or organelle used according to the process of the invention except that the responsible or activity conferring nucleic acid molecules or the gene product encoded by them are amended, manipulated, exchanged or introduced according to the inventive process. In case, a control, reference or wild type differing from the subject of the present inven- tion only by not being subject of the process of the invention can not be provided, a control, reference or wild type can be an organism in which the cause for the modulation of an activity conferring the enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof or expression of the nucleic acid molecule of the invention as described herein has been switched back or off, e.g. by knocking out the expression of responsible gene product, e.g. by antisense or RNAi or miRNA inhibition, by inactivation of an activator or agonist, by activation of an inhibitor or antagonist, by inhibition through adding inhibitory antibodies, by adding active compounds as e.g. hormones, by introducing negative dominant mutants, etc. A gene production can for example be knocked out by introducing inactivating point muta- tions, which lead to an enzymatic activity inhibition or a destabilization or an inhibition of the ability to bind to cofactors etc. Accordingly, preferred reference subject is the starting subject of the present process of the invention. Preferably, the reference and the subject matter of the invention are compared after standardization and normalization, e.g. to the amount of total RNA, DNA, or protein or activity or expression of reference genes, like housekeeping genes, such as ubiquitin, actin or ribosomal proteins.
[0071] The term "expression" refers to the transcription and/or translation of a codogenic gene segment or gene. As a rule, the resulting product is an mRNA or a protein.
[0072] The increase or modulation according to this invention can be constitutive, e.g. due to a stable permanent transgenic expression or to a stable mutation in the correspond- ing endogenous gene encoding the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or to a modulation of the expression or of the behavior of a gene conferring the expression of the polypeptide of the invention, or transient, e.g. due to an transient transformation or temporary addition of a modulator such as a agonist or antagonist or inducible, e.g. after transformation with a inducible construct carrying the nucleic acid molecule of the invention under control of a inducible promoter and adding the inducer, e.g. tetracycline or as described herein below.
[0073] Less influence on the regulation of a gene or its gene product is understood as meaning a reduced regulation of the enzymatic activity leading to an increased specific or cellular activity of the gene or its product. An increase of the enzymatic activity is under- stood as meaning an enzymatic activity, which is increased by 10% or more, advantageously 20%, 30% or 40% or more, especially advantageously by 50%, 60% or 70% or more in comparison with the starting organism. This leads to increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant or part thereof.
[0074] The increase in activity of the polypeptide amounts in a cell, a tissue, an organelle, an organ or an organism, preferably a plant, or a part thereof preferably to 5% or more, preferably to 20% or to 50%, especially preferably to 70%, 80%, 90% or more, very especially preferably are to 100%, 150 % or 200%, most preferably are to 250% or more in comparison to the control, reference or wild type. In one embodiment the term increase means the increase in amount in relation to the weight of the organism or part thereof (w/w).
[0075] By "vectors" is meant with the exception of plasmids all other vectors known to those skilled in the art such as by way of example phages, viruses such as SV40, CMV, baculovirus, adenovirus, transposons, IS elements, phasmids, phagemids, cosmids, linear or circular DNA. These vectors can be replicated autonomously in the host organism or be chromosomally replicated, chromosomal replication being preferred. As used herein, the term "vector" refers to a nucleic acid molecule capable of transporting another nucleic acid to which it has been linked. One type of vector is a "plasmid", which refers to a circular double stranded DNA loop into which additional DNA segments can be ligated. Another type of vector is a viral vector, wherein additional DNA segments can be ligated into the viral genome. Certain vectors are capable of autonomous replication in a host cell into which they are introduced (e.g. bacterial vectors having a bacterial origin of replication and episomal mammalian vectors). Other vectors (e.g. non-episomal mammalian vectors) are integrated into the genome of a host cell or a organelle upon introduction into the host cell, and thereby are replicated along with the host or organelle genome. Moreover, certain vectors are capable of directing the expression of genes to which they are operatively linked. Such vectors are referred to herein as "expression vectors." In general, expression vectors of utility in recombinant DNA techniques are often in the form of plasmids. In the present specification, "plasmid" and "vector" can be used interchangeably as the plasmid is the most commonly used form of vector. However, the invention is intended to include such other forms of expression vectors, such as viral vectors (e.g., replication defective retroviruses, adenoviruses, and adeno-associated viruses), which serve equivalent functions.
[0076] As used herein, "operatively linked" is intended to mean that the nucleotide sequence of interest is linked to the regulatory sequence(s) in a manner which allows for expression of the nucleotide sequence (e.g. in an in vitro transcription/translation system or in a host cell when the vector is introduced into the host cell). The term "regulatory sequence" is intended to include promoters, enhancers, and other expression control elements (e.g. polyadenylation signals). Such regulatory sequences are described, for example, in Goed- del, Gene Expression Technology: Methods in Enzymology 185, Academic Press, San Diego, CA (1990), and Gruber and Crosby, in: Methods in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, eds. Glick and Thompson, Chapter 7, 89-108, CRC Press; Boca Raton, Florida, including the references therein. Regulatory sequences include those that direct constitutive expression of a nucleotide sequence in many types of host cells and those that direct expression of the nucleotide sequence only in certain host cells or under certain conditions.
[0077] "Transformation" is defined herein as a process for introducing heterologous DNA into a plant cell, plant tissue, or plant. It may occur under natural or artificial conditions using various methods well known in the art. Transformation may rely on any known method for the insertion of foreign nucleic acid sequences into a prokaryotic or eukaryotic host cell. The method is selected based on the host cell being transformed and may include, but is not limited to, viral infection, electroporation, lipofection, and particle bom- bardment. Such "transformed" cells include stably transformed cells in which the inserted DNA is capable of replication either as an autonomously replicating plasmid or as part of the host chromosome. They also include cells which transiently express the inserted DNA or RNA for limited periods of time. Transformed plant cells, plant tissue, or plants are un- derstood to encompass not only the end product of a transformation process, but also transgenic progeny thereof.
[0078] The terms "transformed," "transgenic," and "recombinant" refer to a host organism such as a bacterium or a plant into which a heterologous nucleic acid molecule has been introduced. The nucleic acid molecule can be stably integrated into the genome of the host or the nucleic acid molecule can also be present as an extra-chromosomal molecule. Such an extra-chromosomal molecule can be auto-replicating. Transformed cells, tissues, or plants are understood to encompass not only the end product of a transformation process, but also transgenic progeny thereof. A "non-transformed", "non-transgenic" or "non- recombinant" host refers to a wild-type organism, e.g. a bacterium or plant, which does not contain the heterologous nucleic acid molecule.
[0079] The terms " host organism", "host cell", "recombinant (host) organism" and "transgenic (host) cell" are used here interchangeably. Of course these terms relate not only to the particular host organism or the particular target cell but also to the descendants or potential descendants of these organisms or cells. Since, due to mutation or environmental effects certain modifications may arise in successive generations, these descendants need not necessarily be identical with the parental cell but nevertheless are still encompassed by the term as used here.
[0080] For the purposes of the invention " transgenic" or "recombinant" means with regard for example to a nucleic acid sequence, an expression cassette (= gene construct, nucleic acid construct) or a vector containing the nucleic acid sequence according to the invention or an organism transformed by said nucleic acid sequences, expression cassette or vector according to the invention all those constructions produced by genetic engineering methods in which either
(a) the nucleic acid sequence depicted in table I, column 5 or 7 or its derivatives or parts thereof; or
(b) a genetic control sequence functionally linked to the nucleic acid sequence described under (a), for example a 3'- and/or 5'- genetic control sequence such as a promoter or terminator, or
(c) (a) and (b);
are not found in their natural, genetic environment or have been modified by genetic engineering methods, wherein the modification may by way of example be a substitution, addition, deletion, inversion or insertion of one or more nucleotide residues.
[0081] "Natural genetic environment" means the natural genomic or chromosomal locus in the organism of origin or inside the host organism or presence in a genomic library. In the case of a genomic library the natural genetic environment of the nucleic acid sequence is preferably retained at least in part. The environment borders the nucleic acid sequence at least on one side and has a sequence length of at least 50 bp, preferably at least 500 bp, particularly preferably at least 1 ,000 bp, most particularly preferably at least 5,000 bp. A naturally occurring expression cassette - for example the naturally occurring combination of the natural promoter of the nucleic acid sequence according to the invention with the corresponding gene - turns into a transgenic expression cassette when the latter is modified by unnatural, synthetic ("artificial") methods such as by way of example a mutagenation. Ap- propriate methods are described by way of example in US 5,565,350 or WO 00/15815.
[0082] The term "transgenic plants" used in accordance with the invention also refers to the progeny of a transgenic plant, for example the ΤΊ, T2, T3 and subsequent plant generations or the BCi, BC2, BC3 and subsequent plant generations. Thus, the transgenic plants according to the invention can be raised and selfed or crossed with other individuals in or- der to obtain further transgenic plants according to the invention. Transgenic plants may also be obtained by propagating transgenic plant cells vegetatively. The present invention also relates to transgenic plant material, which can be derived from a transgenic plant population according to the invention. Such material includes plant cells and certain tissues, organs and parts of plants in all their manifestations, such as seeds, leaves, anthers, fibers, tubers, roots, root hairs, stems, embryo, calli, cotelydons, petioles, harvested material, plant tissue, reproductive tissue and cell cultures, which are derived from the actual transgenic plant and/or can be used for bringing about the transgenic plant. Any transformed plant obtained according to the invention can be used in a conventional breeding scheme or in in vitro plant propagation to produce more transformed plants with the same characteristics and/or can be used to introduce the same characteristic in other varieties of the same or related species. Such plants are also part of the invention. Seeds obtained from the transformed plants genetically also contain the same characteristic and are part of the invention. As mentioned before, the present invention is in principle applicable to any plant and crop that can be transformed with any of the transformation method known to those skilled in the art.
[0083] The term "homology" means that the respective nucleic acid molecules or encoded proteins are functionally and/or structurally equivalent. The nucleic acid molecules that are homologous to the nucleic acid molecules described above and that are derivatives of said nucleic acid molecules are, for example, variations of said nucleic acid molecules which represent modifications having the same biological function, in particular encoding proteins with the same or substantially the same biological function. They may be naturally occurring variations, such as sequences from other plant varieties or species, or mutations. These mutations may occur naturally or may be obtained by mutagenesis techniques. The allelic variations may be naturally occurring allelic variants as well as synthetically produced or genetically engineered variants. Structurally equivalents can, for example, be identified by testing the binding of said polypeptide to antibodies or computer based predictions.
Structurally equivalent have the similar immunological characteristic, e.g. comprise similar epitopes.
[0084] As used herein, the terms "gene" and "recombinant gene" refer to nucleic acid molecules comprising an open reading frame encoding the polypeptide of the invention or comprising the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or encoding the polypeptide used in the process of the present invention, preferably from a crop plant or from a microorgansim useful for the method of the invention. Such natural variations can typically result in 1 to 5% variance in the nucleotide sequence of the gene. Any and all such nucleotide variations and resulting amino acid polymorphisms in genes encoding a polypeptide of the invention or comprising a the nucleic acid molecule of the invention that are the result of natural variation and that do not alter the functional activity as described are intended to be within the scope of the invention.
Specific Embodiments
[0085] Accordingly, this invention provides measures and methods to produce plants with increased yield, e.g. genes conferring an increased yield-related trait, for example en- hanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait, upon expression or over-expression. Accordingly, the present invention provides genes derived from plants. In particular, genes from plants are described in column 5 as well as in column 7 of tables I or II.
[0086] Accordingly, the present invention provides transgenic plants showing one or more improved yield-related traits as compared to the corresponding origin or the wild type plant and methods for producing such transgenic plants with increased yield. One or more enhanced yield-related phenotypes are increased in accordance with the invention by increasing or generating one or more activities in the transgenic plant, wherein the activity is selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl- CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C- methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885- protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380- protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial as- paraginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen- evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiq- uitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein activity in a subcellular compartment and/or tissue of said plant indicated herein, e.g. in Table I, column 6.
[0087] The nucleic acid molecule of the present invention or used in accordance with the present invention, encodes a protein conferring an activity of a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D- erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01.1 -protein, 60952769. R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885- protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380- protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold re- sponse protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial as- paraginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen- evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family pro- tein, and Vacuolar protein, i.e. conferring an "yield-increasing activity". Accordingly, in one embodiment, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule that encodes a polypeptide with an yield-increasing activity which is encoded by a nucleic acid sequence as shown in table I, column 5 or 7, and/or which is a protein comprising or consisting of a polypeptide as depicted in table II, column 5 and 7, and/or that can be amplified with the primer set shown in table III, column 7.
[0088] The increase or generation of one or more said "activities" is for example conferred by the increase of activity or of amount in a cell or a part thereof of one or more expression products of said nucleic acid molecule, e.g. proteins, or by de novo expression, i.e. by the generation of said "activity" in the plant.
[0089] In one embodiment, one or more of said yield-increasing activities are increased by increasing the amount and/or the specific activity of one or more proteins listed in Table I, column 5 or 7 in a compartment of a cell indicated in Table I, column 6.
[0090] Accordingly to present invention, the yield of the plant of the invention is increased by improving one or more of the yield-related traits as defined herein. Said in- creased yield in accordance with the present invention can typically be achieved by enhancing or improving, in comparison to an origin or wild-type plant, one or more yield-related traits of said plant. Such yield-related traits of a plant the improvement of which results in increased yield comprise, without limitation, the increase of the intrinsic yield capacity of a plant, improved nutrient use efficiency, and/or increased stress tolerance.
[0091] In one embodiment, abiotic environmental stress refers to nitrogen use efficiency.
[0092] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 64, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 63, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 63 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 64, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 63 or SEQ ID NO.: 64, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[0093] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 642, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 641 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 641 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 642, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT1G53885-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or poly- peptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 641 or SEQ ID NO.: 642, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.25-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[0094] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2458, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2457, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2457 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2458, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 2457 or SEQ ID NO.: 2458, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.11 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[0095] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "60S ribosomal protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 3463 or SEQ ID NO.: 3464, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[0096] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 6495, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 6494, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 6494 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 6495, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "histone H2B" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 6494 or SEQ ID NO.: 6495, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.19-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[0097] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "protein kinase family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7434 or SEQ ID NO.: 7435, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.24-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[0098] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7514, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7513, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7513 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7514, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AP2 domain- containing transcription factor" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7513 or SEQ ID NO.: 7514, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.40-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corre- sponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[0099] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7546, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7545, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7545 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7546, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "Oligosaccharyl- transferase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nu- cleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7545 or SEQ ID NO.: 7546, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00100] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "plastid lipid- associated protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, de- picted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8287 or SEQ ID NO.: 8288, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.14-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding con- trol, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00101] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7865, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7864, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7864 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7865, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "galactinol synthase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7864 or SEQ ID NO.: 7865, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.13-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00102] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8153, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8152, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8152 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8153, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "cold response protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8152 or SEQ ID NO.: 8153, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00103] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environ- mental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "small heat shock protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8408 or SEQ ID NO.: 8409, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00104] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "universal stress protein family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10880 or SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.05-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corre- sponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00105] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "heat shock protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10965 or SEQ ID NO.: 10966, re- spectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.13-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00106] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1419, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 11418, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 11418 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 11419, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "argonaute protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1 1418 or SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00107] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12197, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12196, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12196 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12197, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity
"AT2G35300-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12196 or SEQ ID NO.: 12197, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.23- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00108] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12317, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12316, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12316 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12317, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "ubiquitin- protein ligase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12316 or SEQ ID NO.:
12317, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.08-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00109] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13277, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13276, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13276 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13277, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "jasmonate- zim-domain protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13276 or SEQ ID NO.: 13277, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.24- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00110] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is in- creased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "PRLI- interacting factor" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13245 or SEQ ID NO.: 13246, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1 .23-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[001 1 1] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10754, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10753, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea mays is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10753 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10754, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environ- mental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity
"60952769. R01.1 -protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10753 or SEQ ID NO.: 10754, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1 .05-fold to 1 .15- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[001 12] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13310, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13309, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is in- creased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13309 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13310, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity
"AT5G42380-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13309 or SEQ ID NO.: 13310, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1 .32- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[001 13] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10750, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10749, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea mays is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10749 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10750, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environ- mental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity
"57972199. R01.1 -protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10749 or SEQ ID NO.: 10750, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1 .05-fold to 1 .30- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[001 14] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13502, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13501 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is in- creased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Oryza sativa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13501 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13502, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "OS02G44730- protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13501 or SEQ ID NO.: 13502, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase oc- curs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1 .30-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant. [00115] The transgenic plants of the present invention demonstrate increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13103, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13102, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13102 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13103, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased intrinsic yield, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "ubiquitin- conjugating enzyme" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13102 or SEQ ID NO.: 13103, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.23- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under standard conditions, e.g. in the absence of nutrient deficiency and/or stress conditions is conferred compared to a corresponding control, e.g. an non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00116] In one embodiment, a nucleic acid molecule indicated in Table VI lid or its homolog as indicated in Table I or the expression product is used in the method of the present invention to increase intrinsic yield, e.g. to increase yield under standard conditions, e.g. increase biomass under non-deficiency or non-stress conditions, of the plant compared to the wild type control.
[00117] A plant's tolerance to drought may be measured by monitoring any of the pheno- types described above in a field during a drought, or in a model system in a drought assay such as a cycling drought or water use efficiency assay. Experimental designs of cycling drought assays and water use efficiency assays are known. An increased drought tolerance may be demonstrated, for example, by survival of a transgenic corn, soy, oilseed rape, or cotton plant produced in accordance with the present invention under water-limiting conditions which would stunt or destroy a control plant of the respective species.
[00118] Water use efficiency (WUE) is a parameter often correlated with drought tolerance. An increase in biomass at low water availability may be due to relatively improved efficiency of growth or reduced water consumption. In selecting traits for improving crops, a decrease in water use, without a change in growth would have particular merit in an irrigated agricultural system where the water input costs were high. An increase in growth without a corresponding jump in water use would have applicability to all agricultural systems. In many agricultural systems where water supply is not limiting, an increase in growth, even if it came at the expense of an increase in water use also increases yield.
[00119] When soil water is depleted or if water is not available during periods of drought, crop yields are restricted. Plant water deficit develops if transpiration from leaves exceeds the supply of water from the roots. The available water supply is related to the amount of water held in the soil and the ability of the plant to reach that water with its root system. Transpiration of water from leaves is linked to the fixation of carbon dioxide by photosynthesis through the stomata. The two processes are positively correlated so that high carbon dioxide influx through photosynthesis is closely linked to water loss by transpiration. As water transpires from the leaf, leaf water potential is reduced and the stomata tend to close in a hydraulic process limiting the amount of photosynthesis. Since crop yield is dependent on the fixation of carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, water uptake and transpiration are contributing factors to crop yield. Plants which are able to use less water to fix the same amount of carbon dioxide or which are able to function normally at a lower water potential have the potential to conduct more photosynthesis and thereby to produce more biomass and eco- nomic yield in many agricultural systems.
[00120] For example, increased tolerance to drought conditions can be determined and quantified according to the following method: Transformed plants are grown individually in pots in a growth chamber (York Industriekalte GmbH, Mannheim, Germany). Germination is induced. In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana sown seeds are kept at 4°C, in the dark, for 3 days in order to induce germination. Subsequently conditions are changed for 3 days to 20°C/ 6°C day/night temperature with a 16/8h day-night cycle at 150 E/m2s.
Subsequently the plants are grown under standard growth conditions. In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana, the standard growth conditions are: photoperiod of 16 h light and 8 h dark, 20 °C, 60% relative humidity, and a photon flux density of 200 μΕ. Plants are grown and cultured until they develop leaves. In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana they are watered daily until they were approximately 3 weeks old. Starting at that time drought was imposed by withholding water. After the non-transformed wild type plants show visual symptoms of injury, the evaluation starts and plants are scored for symptoms of drought symptoms and biomass production comparison to wild type and neighboring plants for 5 - 6 days in succession. The tolerance to drought, e.g. the tolerance to cycling drought can be determined according to the method described in the examples. The tolerance to drought can be a tolerance to cycling drought.
[00121] Accordingly, in one embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for increasing the yield, comprising the following steps:
(a) determining, whether the water supply in the area for planting is optimal or suboptimal for the growth of an origin or wild type plant, e.g. a crop, and/or determining the visual symptoms of injury of plants growing in the area for planting; and
(b1 ) growing the plant of the invention in said soil, if the water supply is suboptimal for the growth of an origin or wild type plant or visual symptoms for drought can be found at a standard, origin or wild type plant growing in the area; or
(b2) growing the plant of the invention in the soil and comparing the yield with the yield of a standard, an origin or a wild type plant and selecting and growing the plant, which shows a higher yield or the highest yield, if the water supply is optimal for the origin or wild type plant.
Visual symptoms of injury stating for one or any combination of two, three or more of the following features: wilting; leaf browning; loss of turgor, which results in drooping of leaves or needles stems, and flowers; drooping and/or shedding of leaves or needles; the leaves are green but leaf angled slightly toward the ground compared with controls; leaf blades begun to fold (curl) inward; premature senescence of leaves or needles; loss of chlorophyll in leaves or needles and/or yellowing.
[00122] Another yield-related phenotype is increased nutrient use efficiency. The genes identified in Table I, or homologs thereof, may be used to enhance nutrient use efficiency in transgenic plants. Such transgenic plants may demonstrate enhanced yield, as measured by any of the phenotypes described above, with current commercial levels of fertilizer application. Alternatively or additionally, transgenic plants with improved nutrient use efficiency may demonstrate equivalent yield or improved yield with reduced fertilizer input.
[00123] A particularly important nutrient for plants is nitrogen. In accordance with the invention, transgenic plants comprising a gene identified in Table I, or a homolog thereof, demonstrate increased nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), which is increased harvestable yield per unit of input nitrogen fertilizer. Increased nitrogen use efficiency may be determined by measuring any of the yield-related phenotypes described above, in plants which have been grown under conditions of controlled nitrogen soil concentrations, both in the field and in model systems. An exemplary nitrogen use efficiency assay is set forth below. An increased nitrogen use efficiency of a transgenic corn, soy, oilseed rape, or cotton plant in accordance with the present invention may be demonstrated, for example, by an improved or increased protein content of the respective seed, in particular in corn seed used as feed. Increased nitrogen use efficiency relates also to an increased kernel size or a higher kernel number per plant.
[00124] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 64, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 63, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 63 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 64, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 63 or SEQ ID NO. 64, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.49-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00125] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 385, or en- coded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 384, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 384 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 385, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 384 or SEQ ID NO. 385, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.37-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00126] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 505, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 504, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 504 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 505, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid mole- cule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 504 or SEQ ID NO. 505, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.28-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00127] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 608, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 607, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 607 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 608, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 607 or SEQ ID NO. 608, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.28-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00128] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 642, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 641 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gener- ated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 641 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 642, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT1 G53885-protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 641 or SEQ ID NO. 642, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Prefera- bly, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.33-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00129] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 673, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 672, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 672 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 673, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 672 or SEQ ID NO. 673, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.19-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00130] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1552, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1551 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1552, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "Polypyrimidine tract binding protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 1551 or SEQ ID NO. 1552, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00131] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1629, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1628, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1628 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1629, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT5G47440-protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 1628 or SEQ ID NO. 1629, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.56-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00132] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1710, or preferably, in SEQ ID NO.: 2220, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1709, or preferably in SEQ ID NO.: 2219, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Escherichia coli is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1709 or SEQ ID NO.: 2219 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.
1710 or SEQ ID NO.: 2220, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 1709 or 2219 or SEQ ID NO. 1710 or 2220, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs plastidic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use effi- ciency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.27-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant. In a preferred embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency in a plant is achieve by increasing the activity or amount of a polpypeptide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID No.: 2220 or a homolog thereof, which is 60%, 65%, 705; 80%, 5%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or 100% identical to SEQ ID NO.: 2220, or increasing the gene expression of a nucleic acid molecule comprising the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2219 or a molecule comprising a sequence which is 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or 100% identical to SEQ ID No.: 2219.
[00133] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2227, or, preferably, as shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2447, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2226, or, preferably, as shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2246, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Escherichia coli is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2226, or SEQ ID NO.: 2246, or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2227, or SEQ ID NO.: 2447, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "3'-phosphoadenosine 5'- phosphate phosphatase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 2226 or 2446 or SEQ ID NO. 2227 or 2447, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs plastidic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an in- creased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.15-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant. In a preferred embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency in a plant is achieve by increasing the activity or amount of a polpypeptide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID No.: 2447 or a homolog thereof, which is 60%, 65%, 705; 80%, 5%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or 100% identical to SEQ ID NO.: 2447, or increasing the gene expression of a nucleic acid molecule comprising the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2446 or a molecule comprising a sequence which is 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, 98%, or 99% or 100% identical to SEQ ID No.: 2446.
[00134] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2458, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2457, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2457 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2458, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 2457 or SEQ ID NO. 2458, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.25- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00135] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "60S ribosomal protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 3463 or SEQ ID NO. 3464, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.13- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00136] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3795, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3794, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3794 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3795, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "serine hydroxymethyltransferase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 3794 or SEQ ID NO. 3795, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.35-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00137] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 4631 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 4630, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Thermus thermophilus is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 4630 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 4631 , respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environ- mental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "S-ribosylhomocysteinase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 4630 or SEQ ID NO. 4631 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.36-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen defi- ciency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00138] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5043, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5042, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5042 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5043, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "Vacuolar protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 5042 or SEQ ID NO. 5043, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.29-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00139] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5070, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5069, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5069 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5070, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "GTPase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypep- tide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 5069 or SEQ ID NO. 5070, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.66- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00140] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5493, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5492, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea mays is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5492 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5493, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "Thioredoxin H-type or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide compris- ing the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 5492 or SEQ ID NO. 5493, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.10-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00141] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5839, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5838 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5839, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT1 G29250.1 -protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypep- tide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO.
5838 or SEQ ID NO. 5839, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00142] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5983, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5982, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5982 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5983, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "serine acetyltransferase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a poly- peptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 5982 or SEQ ID NO. 5983, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.15- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00143] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 6495, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 6494, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 6494 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 6495, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "histone H2B or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 6494 or SEQ ID NO. 6495, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.20-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00144] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7365, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7364, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7364 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7365, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT4G01870-protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 7364 or SEQ ID NO. 7365, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00145] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "protein kinase family protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 7434 or SEQ ID NO. 7435, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.13-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00146] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7514, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7513, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7513 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7514, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AP2 domain-containing transcription factor or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 7513 or SEQ ID NO. 7514, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one em- bodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.33-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00147] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7546, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7545, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7545 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7546, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "Oligosaccharyltransferase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 7545 or SEQ ID NO. 7546, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.14- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00148] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7722, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7721 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7721 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7722, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "ABC transporter family protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 7721 or SEQ ID NO. 7722, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.24-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00149] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "plastid lipid-associated protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8287 or SEQ ID NO. 8288, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00150] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7865, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7864, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7864 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7865, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "galactinol synthase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 7864 or SEQ ID NO. 7865, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00151] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8065, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8064, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8064 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8065, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8064 or SEQ ID NO. 8065, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.57-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00152] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8105, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8104, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8104 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8105, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8104 or SEQ ID NO. 8105, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.60-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00153] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8153, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8152, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8152 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8153, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "cold response protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypep- tide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8152 or SEQ ID NO. 8153, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.12- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00154] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8207, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8206, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8206 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8207, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "heat shock transcription factor or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8206 or SEQ ID NO. 8207, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.15-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00155] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "small heat shock protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8408 or SEQ ID NO. 8409, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00156] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8843, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8842, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8842 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8843, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 8842 or SEQ ID NO. 8843, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.31 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00157] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 9855, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 9854, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Oryza sativa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 9854 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 9855, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "sugar transporter or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 9854 or SEQ ID NO. 9855, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.77-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00158] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 9982, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 9981 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 9981 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 9982, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 9981 or SEQ ID NO. 9982, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accord- ingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00159] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10799, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10798, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10798 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10799, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a correspond- ing non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "protein kinase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10798 or SEQ ID NO. 10799, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.20-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00160] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10839, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10838 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10839, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environ- mental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "haspin-related protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10838 or SEQ ID NO. 10839, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.24-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00161] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environ- mental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "universal stress protein family protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10880 or SEQ ID NO. 10881 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.21 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00162] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "heat shock protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10965 or SEQ ID NO. 10966, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.16-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00163] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1419, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1418, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1418 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1419, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "argonaute protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 1 1418 or SEQ ID NO. 11419, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment in- creased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.18-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00164] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1753, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1752, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1752 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 1753, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a correspond- ing non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "glutathione-S-transferase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 1 1752 or SEQ ID NO. 1 1753, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.18-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00165] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12197, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12196, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12196 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12197, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a correspond- ing non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT2G35300-protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 12196 or SEQ ID NO. 12197, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.20-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00166] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12317, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12316, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12316 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12317, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "ubiquitin-protein ligase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 12316 or SEQ ID NO. 12317, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.16-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen defi- ciency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00167] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12574, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12573, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12573 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12574, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT3G04620-protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 12573 or SEQ ID NO. 12574, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.1 1 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen defi- ciency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00168] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12669, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12668, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12668 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12669, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "Cytochrome P450 or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 12668 or SEQ ID NO. 12669, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.34-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00169] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13132, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13131 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13131 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13132, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13131 or SEQ ID NO. 13132, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one em- bodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.95-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00170] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13277, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13276, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13276 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13277, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environ- mental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13276 or SEQ ID NO. 13277, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00171] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13437, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13436, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13436 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13437, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environ- mental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "CDS5394-protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13436 or SEQ ID NO. 13437, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.33-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00172] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13478, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13477, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13477 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13478, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13477 or SEQ ID NO. 13478, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.23-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00173] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13552, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea mays is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13551 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13552, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "cullin or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13551 or SEQ ID NO. 13552, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00174] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "PRLI-interacting factor or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13245 or SEQ ID NO. 13246, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.32-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00175] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10754, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10753, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea mays is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10753 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10754, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activ- ity "60952769. R01.1 -protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10753 or SEQ ID NO. 10754, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.18- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00176] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13310, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13309, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nu- cleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13309 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13310, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "AT5G42380-protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13309 or SEQ ID NO. 13310, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1- fold to 1.33-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00177] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10750, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10749, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea mays is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10749 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10750, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "57972199. R01.1 -protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 10749 or SEQ ID NO. 10750, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.14- fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00178] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13502, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13501 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Oryza sativa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13501 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13502, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activ- ity "OS02G44730-protein or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13501 or SEQ ID NO. 13502, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.14-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00179] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, an increased nutrient use efficiency com- pared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13103, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13102, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or gen- erated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13102 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.
13103, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased nutrient use efficiency as compared to a correspond- ing non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof is conferred if the activity "ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme or" if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, as depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7 respective same line as SEQ ID NO. 13102 or SEQ ID NO. 13103, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Accordingly, in one embodiment an increased nitrogen use efficiency is conferred. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.1-fold to 1.17-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of nitrogen deficiency is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00180] In one embodiment, a nucleic acid molecule indicated in Table Villa or its homolog as indicated in Table I or the expression product is used in the method of the present invention to increased nutrient use efficiency, e.g. to increased the nitrogen use efficiency, of the the plant compared with the wild type control.
[00181] For example, enhanced nitrogen use efficiency of the plant can be determined and quantified according to the following method: Transformed plants are grown in pots in a growth chamber (Svalof Weibull, Svalov, Sweden). In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana seeds thereof are sown in pots containing a 1 :1 (v:v) mixture of nutrient depleted soil ("Einheitserde Typ 0", 30% clay, Tantau, Wansdorf Germany) and sand. Germination is induced by a four day period at 4°C, in the dark. Subsequently the plants are grown under standard growth conditions. In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana, the standard growth conditions are: photoperiod of 16 h light and 8 h dark, 20 °C, 60% relative humidity, and a photon flux density of 200 μΕ. In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana they are watered every second day with a N-depleted nutrient solution and after 9 to 10 days the plants are individualized. After a total time of 29 to 31 days the plants are harvested and rated by the fresh weight of the aerial parts of the plants, preferably the rosettes.
[00182] The nitrogen use efficiency for example be determined according to the method described herein. Further, the present invention relates also to a method for increasing the yield, comprising the following steps: (a) measuring the nitrogen content in the soil, and (b) determining, whether the nitrogen-content in the soil is optimal or suboptimal for the growth of an origin or wild type plant, e.g. a crop, and (c1) growing the plant of the invention in said soil, if the nitrogen-content is suboptimal for the growth of the origin or wild type plant, or (c2) growing the plant of the invention in the soil and comparing the yield with the yield of a standard, an origin or a wild type plant, selecting and growing the plant, which shows higher or the highest yield, if the nitrogen-content is optimal for the origin or wild type plant.
[00183] Plants (over)expressing nitrogen use efficiency-improving genes can be used for the enhancement of yield of said plants and improve, e.g. reduce nitrogen fertilizer utilization or make it more efficient.
[00184] Generally, adaptation to low temperature may be divided into chilling tolerance, and freezing tolerance. Improved or enhanced "freezing tolerance" or variations thereof refers herein to improved adaptation to temperatures near or below zero, namely preferably temperatures 4 °C or below, more preferably 3 °C or 2 °C or below, and particularly preferred at or 0 (zero) °C or -4 °C or below, or even extremely low temperatures down to - 10 °C or lower; hereinafter called "freezing temperature". Further, an increased tolerance to low temperature may be demonstrated, for example, by an early vigor and allows the early planting and sowing of a corn, soy, oilseed rape, or cotton plant produced according to the method of the present invention.
[00185] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 608, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 607, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 607 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 608, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 607 or SEQ ID NO.: 608, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplas- mic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.08-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00186] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 642, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 641 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 641 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 642, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT1 G53885-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 641 or SEQ ID NO.: 642, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.07-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00187] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 673, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 672, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 672 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 673, respectively, or a homolog thereof . E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 672 or SEQ ID NO.: 673, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.18-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00188] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1629, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1628, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1628 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1629, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT5G47440-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1628 or SEQ ID NO.: 1629, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.07-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00189] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1710, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1709, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Escherichia coli is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 1709 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 1710, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1709 or SEQ ID NO.: 1710, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs plastidic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.24-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00190] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2227, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2226, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Escherichia coli is in- creased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 2226 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 2227, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 2226 or SEQ ID NO.: 2227, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs plastidic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.09-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00191] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 3463 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 3464, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "60S ribosomal protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 3463 or SEQ ID NO.: 3464, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.09-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00192] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 4631 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 4630, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Thermus thermophilus is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 4630 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 4631 , respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "S-ribosylhomocysteinase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 4630 or SEQ ID NO.: 4631 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.06-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00193] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5493, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5492, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea mays is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5492 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5493, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "Thioredoxin H-type" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5492 or SEQ ID NO.: 5493, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.09-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00194] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5839, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5838 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5839, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT1G29250.1 -protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5838 or SEQ ID NO.: 5839, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.20-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00195] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5983, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5982, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 5982 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 5983, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "serine acetyltransferase" or if the activity of a nu- cleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5982 or SEQ ID NO.: 5983, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.22-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00196] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7365, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7364, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7364 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7365, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT4G01870-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7364 or SEQ ID NO.: 7365, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.1 1-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant.
[00197] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7434 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7435, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "protein kinase family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7434 or SEQ ID NO.: 7435, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.07-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00198] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7514, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7513, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7513 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7514, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AP2 domain-containing transcription factor" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7513 or SEQ ID NO.: 7514, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.31 -fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00199] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7546, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7545, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 7545 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 7546, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "Oligosaccharyltransferase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7545 or SEQ ID NO.: 7546, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.13-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00200] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8287 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8288, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "plastid lipid-associated protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8287 or SEQ ID NO.: 8288, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00201] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8065, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8064, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8064 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8065, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8064 or SEQ ID NO.: 8065, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.10-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00202] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8105, or encoded by a nucleic acid mole- cule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8104, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8104 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8105, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 " or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8104 or SEQ ID NO.: 8105, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.08-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00203] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8408 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8409, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "small heat shock protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the con- sensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8408 or SEQ ID NO.: 8409, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.1 1-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00204] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8843, or encoded by a nucleic acid mole- cule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8842, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 8842 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 8843, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or poly- peptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8842 or SEQ ID NO.: 8843, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.15-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00205] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10880 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10881 , respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "universal stress protein family protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10880 or SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.07-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00206] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 10965 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 10966, respectively, or a ho- molog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "heat shock protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10965 or SEQ ID NO.: 10966, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.15-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00207] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12197, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12196, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 12196 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 12197, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "AT2G35300-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12196 or SEQ ID NO.: 12197, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.10-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00208] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13132, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13131 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13131 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13132, respectively, or a ho- molog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13131 or SEQ ID NO.: 13132, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.08-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00209] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13437, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13436, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13436 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13437, respectively, or a homolog thereo. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "CDS5394-protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13436 or SEQ ID NO.: 13437, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.12-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00210] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13478, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13477, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Populus trichocarpa is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13477 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13478, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "CDS5401_TRUNCATED- protein" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13477 or SEQ ID NO.: 13478, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.16-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00211] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13552, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Zea mays is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13551 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13552, respectively, or a homolog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "cullin" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13551 or SEQ ID NO.: 13552, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.14-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00212] In a further embodiment, an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity of a polypeptide comprising the polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, or encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, is increased or generated. For example, the activity of a corresponding nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide derived from Arabidopsis thaliana is increased or generated, preferably comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in SEQ ID NO. 13245 or polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO. 13246, respectively, or a ho- molog thereof. E.g. an increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, in particular increased low temperature tolerance, compared to a corresponding non-modified, e.g. a non- transformed, wild type plant is conferred if the activity "PRLI-interacting factor" or if the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13245 or SEQ ID NO.: 13246, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. Particularly, an increase of yield from 1.05-fold to 1.25-fold, for example plus at least 100% thereof, under conditions of low temperature is conferred compared to a corresponding non- modified, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00213] In one embodiment, a nucleic acid molecule indicated as indicated in Table I or the expression product is used in the method of the present invention to increase stress tolerance, e.g. increase low temperature, of a plant compared to the wild type control.
[00214] The ratios indicated above particularly refer to an increased yield actually measured as increase of biomass, especially as fresh weight biomass of aerial parts.
[00215] Enhanced tolerance to low temperature may, for example, be determined according to the following method: Transformed plants are grown in pots in a growth chamber (e.g. York, Mannheim, Germany). In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana seeds thereof are sown in pots containing a 3.5:1 (v:v) mixture of nutrient rich soil (GS90, Tantau, Wans- dorf, Germany) and sand. Plants are grown under standard growth conditions. In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana, the standard growth conditions are: photoperiod of 16 h light and 8 h dark, 20 °C, 60% relative humidity, and a photon flux density of 200 pmol/m2s. Plants are grown and cultured. In case the plants are Arabidopsis thaliana they are watered every second day. After 9 to 10 days the plants are individualized. Cold (e.g. chilling at 11 - 12 °C) is applied 14 days after sowing until the end of the experiment. After a total growth period of 29 to 31 days the plants are harvested and rated by the fresh weight of the aerial parts of the plants, in the case of Arabidopsis preferably the rosettes.
[00216] Surprisingly it was found, that the transgenic expression of the nucleic acid molecule of the invention derived from an organism indicated in column 4, in a plant such as A. thaliana , for example, conferred increased yield.
[00217] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 64, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 63, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or poly- peptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 63, or SEQ ID NO.: 64, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00218] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 385, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 384, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 384, or SEQ ID NO.: 385, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplas- mic.
[00219] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 505, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 504, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 504, or SEQ ID NO.: 505, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00220] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 608, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 607, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 607, or SEQ ID NO.: 608, respec- tively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00221] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 642, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 641 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "AT1G53885-protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the con- sensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 641 , or SEQ ID NO.: 642, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00222] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 673, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 672, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 672, or SEQ ID NO.: 673, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00223] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1552, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "Polypyrimidine tract binding protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1551 , or SEQ ID NO.: 1552, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00224] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1629, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1628, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "AT5G47440-protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1628, or SEQ ID NO.: 1629, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00225] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred according to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1710, or preferably, in SEQ ID NO.: 2220, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nu- cleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1709, or, preferably, in SEQ ID NO.: 2219, a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Escherichia coli or modified as shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2219 and SEQ ID NO.: 2220. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 1709 or 2219, or SEQ ID NO.: 1710 or 2220, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs plastidic.
[00226] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2227, or, preferably as in SEQ ID NO.: 2447, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2226, or preferably as in SEQ ID NO.: 2446, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Escherichia coli or modified as shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2447 or SEQ ID NO.: 2446. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 2226 or 2446, or SEQ ID NO.: 2227 or 2447, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs plastidic.
[00227] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2458, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 2457, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 2457, or SEQ ID NO.: 2458, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00228] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 3464, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 3463, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "60S ribosomal protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 3463, or SEQ ID NO.: 3464, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00229] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 3795, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 3794, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "serine hydroxymethyltransferase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 3794, or SEQ ID NO.: 3795, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00230] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 4631 , or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 4630, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Thermus thermo- philus. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "S-ribosylhomocysteinase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 4630, or SEQ ID NO.: 4631 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00231] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5043, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5042, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "Vacuolar protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5042, or SEQ ID NO.: 5043, respectively, is increased or gener- ated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00232] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5070, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5069, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "GTPase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5069, or SEQ ID NO.: 5070, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00233] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5493, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5492, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Zea mays. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "Thioredoxin H-type" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5492, or SEQ ID NO.: 5493, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00234] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5839, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "AT1G29250.1 -protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5838, or SEQ ID NO.: 5839, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. [00235] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5983, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 5982, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "serine acetyltransferase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 5982, or SEQ ID NO.: 5983, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00236] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 6495, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 6494, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "histone H2B" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus se- quence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 6494, or SEQ ID NO.: 6495, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00237] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7365, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7364, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "AT4G01870-protein" or the activity of a nu- cleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7364, or SEQ ID NO.: 7365, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00238] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7435, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7434, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "protein kinase family protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7434, or SEQ ID NO.: 7435, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00239] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7514, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7513, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "AP2 domain-containing transcription factor" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7513, or SEQ ID NO.: 7514, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00240] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7546, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7545, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "Oligosaccharyltransferase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7545, or SEQ ID NO.: 7546, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00241] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7722, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7721 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "ABC transporter family protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7721 , or SEQ ID NO.: 7722, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00242] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8288, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8287, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "plastid lipid-associated protein" or the activ- ity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8287, or SEQ ID NO.: 8288, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplas- mic.
[00243] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7865, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 7864, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "galactinol synthase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 7864, or SEQ ID NO.: 7865, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00244] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8065, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8064, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8064, or SEQ ID NO.: 8065, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00245] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8105, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8104, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 " or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8104, or SEQ ID NO.: 8105, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00246] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8153, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8152, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "cold response protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8152, or SEQ ID NO.: 8153, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00247] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8207, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8206, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "heat shock transcription factor" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8206, or SEQ ID NO.: 8207, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplas- mic.
[00248] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8409, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8408, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "small heat shock protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8408, or SEQ ID NO.: 8409, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00249] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8843, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 8842, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 8842, or SEQ ID NO.: 8843, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic. [00250] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 9855, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 9854, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Oryza sativa. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "sugar transporter" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 9854, or SEQ ID NO.: 9855, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00251] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 9982, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 9981 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 9981 , or SEQ ID NO.: 9982, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00252] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10799, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10798, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "protein kinase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10798, or SEQ ID NO.: 10799, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00253] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10839, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10838, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "haspin-related protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10838, or SEQ ID NO.: 10839, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00254] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10880, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "universal stress protein family protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10880, or SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00255] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10966, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10965, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "heat shock protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10965, or SEQ ID NO.: 10966, respectively, is increased or gen- erated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00256] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 1 1418, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "argonaute protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 11418, or SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00257] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 11753, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 11752, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "glutathione-S-transferase " or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 11752, or SEQ ID NO.: 1 1753, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00258] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12197, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12196, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "AT2G35300-protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12196, or SEQ ID NO.: 12197, respectively, is increased or gen- erated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00259] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12317, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12316, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "ubiquitin-protein ligase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12316, or SEQ ID NO.: 12317, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00260] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12574, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12573, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "AT3G04620-protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the con- sensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12573, or SEQ ID NO.: 12574, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00261] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12669, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 12668, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "Cytochrome P450" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 12668, or SEQ ID NO.: 12669, respectively, is increased or gen- erated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00262] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13132, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13131 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13131 , or SEQ ID NO.: 13132, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00263] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13277, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13276, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein" or the activ- ity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13276, or SEQ ID NO.: 13277, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00264] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13437, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13436, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "CDS5394-protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13436, or SEQ ID NO.: 13437, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00265] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13478, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13477, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Populus tricho- carpa. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein" or the activ- ity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13477, or SEQ ID NO.: 13478, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00266] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13552, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13551 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Zea mays. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "cullin" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13551 , or SEQ ID NO.: 13552, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00267] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13246, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13245, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "PRLI-interacting factor" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respec- tive same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13245, or SEQ ID NO.: 13246, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00268] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10754, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10753, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Zea mays. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "60952769. R01.1 -protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10753, or SEQ ID NO.: 10754, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00269] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a corre- spondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13310, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13309, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "AT5G42380-protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13309, or SEQ ID NO.: 13310, respectively, is increased or gen- erated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00270] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10750, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 10749, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Zea mays. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "57972199. R01.1 -protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 10749, or SEQ ID NO.: 10750, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00271] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13502, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13501 , or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Oryza sativa. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "OS02G44730-protein" or the activity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus se- quence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13501 , or SEQ ID NO.: 13502, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00272] Accordingly, in one embodiment, an increased yield as compared to a correspondingly non-modified, e.g. a non-transformed, wild type plant is conferred accoriding to method of the invention, by increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising the yield-related polypeptide shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13103, or encoded by the yield-related nucleic acid molecule (or gene) comprising the nucleic acid shown in SEQ ID NO.: 13102, or a homolog of said nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, e.g. derived from Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, in one embodiment, the activity "ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme" or the activ- ity of a nucleic acid molecule or a polypeptide comprising the nucleic acid or polypeptide or the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif, depicted in table I, II or IV, column 7, respective same line as SEQ ID NO.: 13102, or SEQ ID NO.: 13103, respectively, is increased or generated in a plant cell, plant or part thereof. Preferably, the increase occurs cytoplasmic.
[00273] Thus, in one embodiment, the present invention provides a method for producing a plant showing increased or improved yield as compared to the corresponding origin or wild type plant, by increasing or generating one or more activities selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'- phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 - protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein,
AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein,
AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glu- tathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl- tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI- interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding- protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin- conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein, e.g. which is conferred by one or more polynucleotide(s) selected from the group as shown in table I, column 5 or 7 or by one or more protein(s), each comprising a polypeptide encoded by one or more nucleic acid sequence(s) selected from the group as shown in table I, column 5 or 7, or by one or more protein(s) each comprising a polypeptide selected from the group as depicted in table II, column 5 and 7, or a protein having a sequence corresponding to the consensus sequence shown in table IV, column 7 in the and (b) optionally, growing the plant cell, plant or part thereof under conditions which permit the development of the plant cell, the plant or the part thereof, and (c) regenerating a plant with increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant or a part thereof.
[00274] Accordingly, in one further embodiment, the said method for producing a plant or a part thereof for the regeneration of said plant, the plant showing an increased yield, said method comprises (i) growing the plant or part thereof together with a, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant under conditions of abiotic environmental stress or deficiency; and (ii) selecting a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant, for example after the, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant shows visual symptoms of deficiency and/or death.
[00275] Further, the present invention relates to a method for producing a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding origin or wild type plant, e.g. a transgenic plant, which comprises: (a) increasing or generating, in a plant cell nucleus, a plant cell, a plant or a part thereof, one or more activities of a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'- phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 - protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein,
AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glu- tathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl- tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI- interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding- protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin- conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein, e.g. by the methods mentioned herein; and (b) cultivating or growing the plant cell, the plant or the part thereof under conditions which permit the development of the plant cell, the plant or the part thereof; and (c) recovering a plant from said plant cell nucleus, said plant cell, or said plant part, which shows increased yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, origin or wild type plant; and (d) optionally, selecting the plant or a part thereof, showing increased yield, for example showing an increased or improved yield-related trait, e.g. an improved nutrient use efficiency and/or abiotic stress resistance, as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, e.g. which shows visual symptoms of deficiency and/or death.
[00276] Furthermore, the present invention also relates to a method for the identification of a plant with an increased yield comprising screening a population of one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof for said "activity", comparing the level of activity with the activity level in a reference; identifying one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof with the activity increased compared to the reference, optionally producing a plant from the identified plant cell nuclei, cell or tissue.
[00277] In one further embodiment, the present invention also relates to a method for the identification of a plant with an increased yield comprising screening a population of one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof for the expression level of an nucleic acid coding for an polypeptide conferring said activity, comparing the level of expression with a reference; identifying one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof with the expression level increased compared to the reference, optionally producing a plant from the identified plant cell nuclei, cell or tissue.
[00278] Accordingly, in a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a method for producing a transgenic cell for the regeneration or production of a plant with increased yield, e.g. tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or another increased yield- related trait, as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type cell by increasing or generating one or more polypeptide activities selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribo- somal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S- transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA syn- thetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S- ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein. The cell can be for example a host cell, e.g. a transgenic host cell. A host cell can be for example a microorganism, e.g. derived from fungi or bacteria, or a plant cell particular useful for transformation. Furthermore, in one embodiment, the present invention provides a transgenic plant showing one or more increased yield-related trait as compared to the corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, origin or wild type plant cell or plant, having an increased or newly generated one or more "activities" selected from the above mentioned group of "activities" in the sub-cellular compartment and tissue indicated herein of said plant.
[00279] Accordingly, in an embodiment, the present invention provides a method for producing a cell for the regeneration or production of a plant with an increased yield-trait, e.g. tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or another increased yield-related trait, as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell by increasing or generating one or more polypeptides or activities selected from the group consisting of 2- oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'- phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein,
AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S- transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA syn- thetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S- ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein.
[00280] Said cell for the regeneration or production of a plant can be for example a host cell, e.g. a transgenic host cell. A host cell can be for example a microorganism, e.g. de- rived from fungi or bacteria, or a plant cell particular useful for transformation.
[00281] Thus, the present invention fulfills the need to identify new, unique genes capable of conferring increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait, to plants, upon expression or over- expression of exogenous genes. Accordingly, the present invention provides novel ho- mologs of the genes described in Table I, e.g. in table IB.
[00282] In one embodiment the increase in activity of the polypeptide amounts in an organelle such as a plastid. In another embodiment the increase in activity of the polypeptide amounts in the cytoplasm.
[00283] The specific activity of a polypeptide encoded by a nucleic acid molecule of the present invention or of the polypeptide of the present invention can be tested as described in the examples. In particular, the expression of a protein in question in a cell, e.g. a plant cell in comparison to a control is an easy test and can be performed as described in the state of the art.
[00284] The sequence of AT1 G06620_modified from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G06620_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, pref- erably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G06620_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G06620_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G06620_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic. [00285] The sequence of AT1 G06680.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G06680.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, prefera- bly a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G06680.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G06680.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G06680.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00286] The sequence of AT1 G14130.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G14130.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G14130.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G14130.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G14130.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00287] The sequence of AT1 G20810.1_modified from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G20810.1_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G20810.1_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G20810.1_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G20810.1_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00288] The sequence of AT1 G53885 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published. Its activity is described as AT1 G53885-protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT1 G53885-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G53885 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G53885, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G53885 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G53885, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00289] The sequence of AT2G38730.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published. Its activity is described as peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its func- tional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G38730.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G38730.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G38730.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G38730.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00290] The sequence of AT3G01150.1_truncated from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published. Its activity is described as Polypyrimidine tract binding protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "Polypyrimidine tract binding protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G01150.1_truncated or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G01150.1_truncated, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G01 150.1 _truncated or a functional equivalent or a homo- logue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G01150.1_truncated, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00291] The sequence of AT5G47440_modified from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published. Its activity is described as AT5G47440-protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT5G47440-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G47440_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G47440_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G47440_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G47440_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00292] The sequence of B1208 from Escherichia coli, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: Blattner et al., Science 277 (5331 ), 1453 (1997). Its activity is described as 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase" from Escherichia coli or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B1208 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B1208, e.g. plastidic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B1208 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B1208, e.g. plastidic.
[00293] The sequence of B4214 from Escherichia coli, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: Blattner et al., Science 277 (5331 ), 1453 (1997). Its activity is described as 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase" from Escherichia coli or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B4214 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B4214, e.g. plastidic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B4214 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said B4214, e.g. plastidic.
[00294] The sequence of CDS5293_modified from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is is described as 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5293_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, pref- erably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5293_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic; or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5293_modified or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5293_modified, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00295] The sequence of CDS5305 from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 60S ribosomal protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "60S ribosomal protein" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5305 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5305, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5305 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5305, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00296] The sequence of CDS5397 from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as serine hydroxymethyltransferase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "serine hydroxymethyltransferase" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5397 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5397, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5397 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5397, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00297] The sequence of TTC1 186 from Thermus thermophilus, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as S-ribosylhomocysteinase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "S-ribosylhomocysteinase" from Thermus thermophilus or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said TTC1 186 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said TTC1 186, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said TTC1 186 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said TTC1 186, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00298] The sequence of YKL124W from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published in Gof- feau et al., Science 274 (5287), 546 (1996),. Its activity is described as Vacuolar protein. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "Vacuolar protein" from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YKL124W or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YKL124W, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YKL124W or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YKL124W, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00299] The sequence of YNL093W from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published in Gof- feau et al., Science 274 (5287), 546 (1996). Its activity is described as GTPase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "GTPase" from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YNL093W or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YNL093W, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YNL093W or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YNL093W, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00300] The sequence of ZM_7266_BQ538406_CORN_LOFI_344_730_B from Zea mays, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as Thioredoxin H-type.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "Thioredoxin H-type" from Zea mays or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said
ZM_7266_BQ538406_CORN_LOFI_344_730_B or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM_7266_BQ538406_CORN_LOFI_344_730_B, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM_7266_BQ538406_CORN_LOFI_344_730_B or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM_7266_BQ538406_CORN_LOFI_344_730_B, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00301] The sequence of AT1 G29250.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as AT1 G29250.1 -protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT1 G29250.1 -protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G29250.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G29250.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G29250.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G29250.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00302] The sequence of AT1 G55920.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as serine acetyltransferase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "serine acetyltransferase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G55920.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G55920.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G55920.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G55920.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00303] The sequence of AT3G09480 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as histone H2B.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "histone H2B" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G09480 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G09480, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G09480 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G09480, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00304] The sequence of AT4G01870 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as AT4G01870-protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT4G01870-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of (a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G01870 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G01870, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G01870 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G01870, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00305] The sequence of AT4G1 1890 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as protein kinase family protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "protein kinase family protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G11890 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G 11890, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G1 1890 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G1 1890, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00306] The sequence of AT5G07310 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as AP2 domain-containing transcription factor.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AP2 domain-containing transcription factor" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G07310 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G07310, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G07310 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G07310, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00307] The sequence of CDS5422 from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as Oligosaccharyltransferase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity Oligosaccharyltransferase" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5422 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5422, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5422 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5422, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00308] The sequence of AT1 G03905.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as ABC transporter family protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "ABC transporter family protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its func- tional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G03905.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G03905.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G03905.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G03905.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00309] The sequence of AT4G22240.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as plastid lipid-associated protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "plastid lipid-associated protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of (a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G22240.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G22240.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G22240.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G22240.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00310] The sequence of AT1 G09350.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as galactinol synthase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "galactinol synthase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09350.1 or a func- tional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G09350.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09350.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09350.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00311] The sequence of AT1 G30135.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as jasmonate-zim-domain protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G30135.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G30135.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G30135.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G30135.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00312] The sequence of AT1 G35680.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 " from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G35680.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G35680.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G35680.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G35680.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00313] The sequence of AT2G42540.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as cold response protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "cold response protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equiva- lent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G42540.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G42540.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G42540.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G42540.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00314] The sequence of AT3G02990.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as heat shock transcription factor.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "heat shock transcription factor" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of (a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G02990.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G02990.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G02990.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G02990.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00315] The sequence of At5g37670.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as small heat shock protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "small heat shock protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said At5g37670.1 or a func- tional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said At5g37670.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said At5g37670.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said At5g37670.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00316] The sequence of CDS5376 from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5376 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5376, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5376 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5376, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00317] The sequence of LOC_Os02g 13560.1 from Oryza sativa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as sugar transporter.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "sugar transporter" from Oryza sativa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said LOC_Os02g13560.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said LOC_Os02g13560.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said LOC_Os02g13560.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said LOC_Os02g13560.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00318] The sequence of YCR024C from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is published: sequences from S. cerevisiae have been published in Gof- feau et al., Science 274 (5287), 546 (1996),. Its activity is described as mitochondrial as- paraginyl-tRNA synthetase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase" from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YCR024C or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YCR024C, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YCR024C or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said YCR024C, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00319] The sequence of AT1 G05100_truncated from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as protein kinase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "protein kinase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G05100_truncated or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G05100_truncated, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G05100_truncated or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G05100_truncated, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00320] The sequence of AT1 G09450 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as haspin-related protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "haspin-related protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equiva- lent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G09450 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09450, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09450 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G09450, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00321] The sequence of AT1 G44760 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as universal stress protein family protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "universal stress protein family protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G44760 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G44760, e.g. cytoplasmic; or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G44760 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G44760, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00322] The sequence of AT1 G54050.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as heat shock protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "heat shock protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G54050.1 or a func- tional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1G54050.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G54050.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT1 G54050.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00323] The sequence of AT2G27040 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as argonaute protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "argonaute protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G27040 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G27040, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G27040 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G27040, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00324] The sequence of AT2G29490 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as glutathione-S-transferase . Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "glutathione-S-transferase " from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G29490 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G29490, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G29490 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G29490, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00325] The sequence of AT2G35300 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as AT2G35300-protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "AT2G35300-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35300 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35300, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35300 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35300, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00326] The sequence of AT2G35930 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as ubiquitin-protein ligase.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "ubiquitin-protein ligase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35930 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35930, e.g. cytoplasmic; or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35930 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT2G35930, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00327] The sequence of AT3G04620 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as AT3G04620-protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT3G04620-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G04620 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G04620, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G04620 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G04620, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00328] The sequence of AT3G20960 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as Cytochrome P450.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "Cytochrome P450" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G20960 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G20960, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G20960 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G20960, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00329] The sequence of AT3G61580.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G61580.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G61580.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G61580.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G61580.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00330] The sequence of AT5G13220 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as jasmonate-zim-domain protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "jasmonate-zim-domain protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G13220 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G 13220, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G13220 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G13220, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00331] The sequence of CDS5394 from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as CDS5394-protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "CDS5394-protein" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5394 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5394, e.g. cytoplasmic; or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5394 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5394, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00332] The sequence of CDS5401.TRUNCATED from Populus trichocarpa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein" from Populus trichocarpa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5401_TRUNCATED or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5401_TRUNCATED, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5401_TRUNCATED or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said CDS5401_TRUNCATED, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00333] The sequence of ZM06LC319_CORN_LOFM 51_2385_A from Zea mays, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as cullin.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "cullin" from Zea mays or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said
ZM06LC319_CORN_LOFI_151_2385_A or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM06LC319_CORN_LOFI_151_2385_A, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM06LC319_CORN_LOFI_151_2385_A or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said ZM06LC319_CORN_LOFI_151_2385_A, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00334] The sequence of AT4G15420.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as PRLI-interacting factor.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "PRLI-interacting factor" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G15420.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G15420.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G15420.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT4G15420.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00335] The sequence of 60952769. R01.1 from Zea mays, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 60952769.R01.1 -protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "60952769. R01.1 -protein" from Zea mays or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 60952769. R01.1 or a func- tional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 60952769. R01.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 60952769. R01.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 60952769.R01.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00336] The sequence of AT5G42380 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as AT5G42380-protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "AT5G42380-protein" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G42380 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G42380, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G42380 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT5G42380, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00337] The sequence of 57972199.R01.1 from Zea mays, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as 57972199.R01.1 -protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "57972199. R01.1 -protein" from Zea mays or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 57972199. R01.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 57972199. R01.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic; or (b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 57972199. R01.1 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said 57972199.R01.1 , e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00338] The sequence of OS02G44730 from Oryza sativa, e.g. as shown in column 5 of table I, is described as OS02G44730-protein.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product con- ferring the activity "OS02G44730-protein" from Oryza sativa or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said OS02G44730 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, prefera- bly a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said OS02G44730, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said OS02G44730 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as depicted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said OS02G44730, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00339] The sequence of AT3G24515 from Arabidopsis thaliana, e.g. as shown in col- umn 5 of table I, is described as ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, the process of the present invention for producing a plant with increased yield comprises increasing or generating the activity of a gene product conferring the activity "ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme" from Arabidopsis thaliana or its functional equivalent or its homolog, e.g. the increase of
(a) a gene product of a gene comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 of table I, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G24515 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as shown depicted in column 7 of table I, preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as shown depicted in column 7 of table I B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G24515, e.g. cytoplasmic; or
(b) a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown depicted in column 5 of table II or column 7 of table IV, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G24515 or a functional equivalent or a homologue thereof as depicted in column 7 of table II , preferably a homologue or functional equivalent as de- picted in column 7 of table II B, and being depicted in the same respective line as said AT3G24515, e.g. cytoplasmic.
[00340] Accordingly, an activity of a polypeptide selected form the group consisting of 2- oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'- phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argo- naute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein,
AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S- transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer pro- tein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S- ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating en- zyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein is increased in one or more specific compartment(s) or organelle(s) of a cell or plant and confers said increased yield, e.g. the plant shows one or more increased yield-related trait(s). For example, said activity is increased in the compartment of a cell as indicated in table I or II in column 6 resulting in an increased yield of the corresponding plant. For ex- ample, the specific localization of said activity confers an improved or increased yield- related trait as shown in table VIII. For example, said activity can be increased in plastids or mitochondria of a plant cell, thus conferring increase of yield in a corresponding plant.
[00341] In one embodiment, an activity conferred by an expression of a gene described herein or its expression product; e.g. by a polypeptide shown in table II, is increase or generated in the plastid , if in column 6 of each table I or II the term "plastidic" is listed for said polypeptide.
[00342] In one embodiment, an activity conferred by the expression of a gene described herein or its expression product; e.g. by a polypeptide shown in table I or II, is increase or generated in the mitochondria if in column 6 of each table I or II the term "mitochondria" is listed for said polypeptide.
[00343] In another embodiment the present invention relates to a method for producing an, e.g. transgenic, plant with increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant, which comprises
(a) increasing or generating one or more said "activities" according to the invention in the cytoplasm of a plant cell, and
(b) growing the plant under conditions which permit the development of a plant with increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00344] In one embodiment, an activity according to the invention as being conferred by a polypeptide shown in table II is increase or generated in the cytoplasm, if in column 6 of each table I the term "cytoplasmic" is listed for said polypeptide.
[00345] As the terms "cytoplasmic" and "non-targeted" shall not exclude a targeted localisation to any cell compartment for the products of the inventive nucleic acid
sequences by their naturally occurring sequence properties within the background of the transgenic organism, in one embodiment, an activity as disclosed herein as being conferred by a polypeptide shown in table II is increase or generated non-targeted, if in column 6 of each table I the term "cytoplasmic" is listed for said polypeptide. For the purposes of the description of the present invention, the term "cytoplasmic" shall indicate, that the nucleic acid of the invention is expressed without the addition of an non-natural transit peptide encoding sequence. A non-natural transient peptide encoding sequence is a sequence which is not a natural part of a nucleic acid of the invention but is rather added by molecular manipulation steps as for example described in the example under "plastid targeted expression". Therefore the term "cytoplasmic" shall not exclude a targeted localisation to any cell compartment for the products of the inventive nucleic acid sequences by their naturally occurring sequence properties.
[00346] In another embodiment the present invention is related to a method for produc- ing a, e.g. transgenic, plant with increased yield, or a part thereof, as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant, which comprises
(a1 ) increasing or generating one or more said activities of a polypeptide, e.g. the activity of said gene or the gene product gene, e.g. an activity selected from the group con- sisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'- phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D- erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01 .1 -protein, 60952769. R01 .1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein,
AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein,
CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI- interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H- type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein in an organelle of a plant cell, or
(a2) increasing or generating the activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or as encoded by the nucleic acid sequences as shown in table I, column 5 or 7, and which is joined to a nucleic acid sequence encoding a transit peptide in the plant cell; or (a3) increasing or generating the activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or as encoded by the nucleic acid sequences as shown in table I, column 5 or 7, and which is joined to a nucleic acid sequence encoding an organelle localization sequence, especially a chloroplast localization sequence, in a plant cell,
(a4) increasing or generating the activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or as encoded by the nucleic acid sequences as shown in table I, column 5 or 7, and which is joined to a nucleic acid sequence encoding an mitochondrion localization sequence in a plant cell,
and
(b) regererating a plant from said plant cell;
(c) growing the plant under conditions which permit the development of a plant with increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced toler- ance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another increased yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant.
[00347] Accordingly, in a further embodiment, in said method for producing a transgenic plant with increased yield said activity is increased or generating by
increasing or generating the activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3 encoded by the nucleic acid sequences as shown in table I, column 5 or 7, (a1 ) in an organelle of a plant through the transformation of the organelle indicated in column 6 for said activity, or
(a2) in the plastid of a plant, or in one or more parts thereof, through the transformation of the plastids, if indicated in column 6 for said activity;
(a3) in the chloroplast of a plant, or in one or more parts thereof, through the transformation of the chloroplast, if indicated in column 6 for said activity,
(a4) in the mitochondrion of a plant, or in one or more parts thereof, through the transformation of the mitochondrion, if indicated in column 6 for said activity.
[00348] According to the disclosure of the invention, especially in the examples, the skilled worker is able to link transit peptide nucleic acid sequences to the nucleic acid sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, e.g. for the nucleic acid molecules for which in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated.
[00349] Any transit peptide may be used in accordance with the various embodiments of the present invention. For example, specificucleic acid sequences are encoding transit peptides are disclosed by von Heijne et al. (Plant Molecular Biology Reporter, 9 (2), 104, (1991)) or other transit peptides are disclosed by Schmidt et al. (J. Biol. Chem. 268 (36), 27447 (1993)), Della-Cioppa et al. (Plant. Physiol. 84, 965 (1987)), de Castro Silva Filho et al. (Plant Mol. Biol. 30, 769 (1996)), Zhao et al. (J. Biol. Chem. 270 (11 ), 6081 (1995)), Ro- mer et al. (Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 196 (3), 1414 (1993 )), Keegstra et al. (Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 40, 471 (1989)), Lubben et al. (Photosynthesis Res. 17, 173 (1988)) and Lawrence et al. (J. Biol. Chem. 272 (33), 20357 (1997)) ), which are hereby incorporated by reference.. A general review about targeting is disclosed by Kermode Allison R. in Critical Reviews in Plant Science 15 (4), 285 (1996) under the title "Mechanisms of Intracellular Protein Transport and Targeting in Plant Cells.".
[00350] Additional nucleic acid sequences encoding a transit peptide can be isolated from any organism such as microorganisms such as algae or plants containing plastids, preferably containing chloroplasts. A "transit peptide" is an amino acid sequence, whose encoding nucleic acid sequence is translated together with the corresponding structural gene. That means the transit peptide is an integral part of the translated protein and forms an amino terminal extension of the protein. Both are translated as so called "pre-protein". In general the transit peptide is cleaved off from the pre-protein during or just after import of the protein into the correct cell organelle such as a plastid to yield the mature protein. The transit peptide ensures correct localization of the mature protein by facilitating the transport of proteins through intracellular membranes.
[00351] For example, such transit peptides, which are beneficially used in the inventive process, are derived from the nucleic acid sequence encoding a protein selected from the group consisting of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, 5-enolpyruvyl-shikimate- 3-phosphate synthase, acetolactate synthase, chloroplast ribosomal protein CS17, Cs protein, ferredoxin, plastocyanin, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase activase, tryptophan syn- thase, acyl carrier protein, plastid chaperonin-60, cytochrome C552, 22-kDA heat shock protein, 33-kDa Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein 1 , ATP synthase γ subunit, ATP synthase δ subunit, chlorophyll-a/b-binding proteinll-1 , Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein 2, Oxygen- evolving enhancer protein 3, photosystem I: P21 , photosystem I: P28, photosystem I: P30, photosystem I: P35, photosystem I: P37, glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferases, chlorophyll a/b binding protein, CAB2 protein, hydroxymethyl-bilane synthase, pyruvate- orthophosphate dikinase, CAB3 protein, plastid ferritin, ferritin, early light-inducible protein, glutamate-1 -semialdehyde aminotransferase, protochlorophyllide reductase, starch- granule-bound amylase synthase, light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-binding protein of photosystem II, major pollen allergen Lol p 5a, plastid CIpB ATP-dependent protease, superoxide dismutase, ferredoxin NADP oxidoreductase, 28-kDa ribonucleoprotein, 31 -kDa ribonucleoprotein, 33-kDa ribonucleoprotein, acetolactate synthase, ATP synthase CFo subunit 1 , ATP synthase CFo subunit 2, ATP synthase CFo subunit 3, ATP synthase CFo subunit 4, cyto- chrome f, ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, glutamine synthase, glutamine synthase 2, carbonic anhydrase, GapA protein, heat-shock-protein hsp21 , phosphate translocator, plastid ClpA ATP-dependent protease, plastid ribosomal protein CL24, plastid ribosomal protein CL9, plastid ribosomal protein PsCL18, plastid ribosomal protein PsCL25, DAHP synthase, starch phosphorylase, root acyl carrier protein II, betaine-aldehyde dehydrogenase, GapB protein, glutamine synthetase 2, phosphoribulokinase, nitrite reductase, ribosomal protein L12, ribosomal protein L13, ribosomal protein L21 , ribosomal protein L35, ribosomal protein L40, those phosphate-3-phosphoglyerate-phosphate translocator, ferredoxin-dependent glutamate synthase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, NADP-dependent malic enzyme and NADP-malate dehydrogenase, chloroplast 30S ribosomal protein PSrp-1 , and the like.
[00352] The skilled worker will recognize that various other nucleic acid sequences encoding transit peptides can easily isolated from plastid-localized proteins, which are expressed from nuclear genes as precursors and are then targeted to plastids. Nucleic acid sequences encoding a transit peptide can be isolated from organelle-targeted proteins from any organism. Preferably, the transit peptide is isolated from an organism selected from the group consisting of the genera Acetabularia, Arabidopsis, Brassica, Capsicum, Chlamydo- monas, Cururbita, Dunaliella, Euglena, Flaveria, Glycine, Helianthus, Hordeum, Lemna, Lolium, Lycopersion, Malus, Medicago, Mesembryanthemum, Nicotiana, Oenotherea, Oryza, Petunia, Phaseolus, Physcomitrella, Pinus, Pisum, Raphanus, Silene, Sinapis, So- lanum, Spinacea, Stevia, Synechococcus, Triticum and Zea. More preferably, the nucleic acid sequence encoding the transit peptide is isolated from an organism selected from the group consisting of the species Acetabularia mediterranea, Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica campestris, Brassica napus, Capsicum annuum, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Cururbita moschata, Dunaliella salina, Dunaliella tertiolecta, Euglena gracilis, Flaveria trinervia, Gly- cine max, Helianthus annuus, Hordeum vulgare, Lemna gibba, Lolium perenne, Lycopersion esculentum, Malus domestica, Medicago falcata, Medicago sativa, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, Nicotiana sylvestris, Nicotiana tabacum, Oenotherea hookeri, Oryza sativa, Petunia hybrida, Phaseolus vulgaris, Physcomitrella patens, Pinus tunbergii, Pisum sativum, Raphanus sativus, Silene pratensis, Sinapis alba, So- lanum tuberosum, Spinacea oleracea, Stevia rebaudiana, Synechococcus, Synechocystis, Triticum aestivum and Zea mays. Alternatively, nucleic acid sequences coding for transit peptides may be chemically synthesized either in part or wholly according to structure of transit peptide sequences disclosed in the prior art. [00353] Such transit peptides encoding sequences can be used for the construction of other expression constructs. The transit peptides advantageously used in the inventive process and which are part of the inventive nucleic acid sequences and proteins are typically 20 to 120 amino acids, preferably 25 to 110, 30 to 100 or 35 to 90 amino acids, more preferably 40 to 85 amino acids and most preferably 45 to 80 amino acids in length and functions post-translational to direct the protein to the plastid preferably to the chloroplast. The nucleic acid sequences encoding such transit peptides are localized upstream of nucleic acid sequence encoding the mature protein. For the correct molecular joining of the transit peptide encoding nucleic acid and the nucleic acid encoding the protein to be tar- geted it is sometimes necessary to introduce additional base pairs at the joining position, which forms restriction enzyme recognition sequences useful for the molecular joining of the different nucleic acid molecules. This procedure might lead to very few additional amino acids at the N-terminal of the mature imported protein, which usually and preferably do not interfere with the protein function. In any case, the additional base pairs at the joining posi- tion which forms restriction enzyme recognition sequences have to be chosen with care, in order to avoid the formation of stop codons or codons which encode amino acids with a strong influence on protein folding, like e.g. proline. It is preferred that such additional codons encode small structural flexible amino acids such as glycine or alanine.
[00354] As mentioned above the nucleic acid sequence coding for a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or 5, and its homologs as disclosed in table I, column 7 can be joined to a nucleic acid sequence encoding a transit peptide, e.g. if for the nucleic acid molecule in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated. The nucleic acid sequence of the gene to be expressed and the nucleic acid sequence encoding the transit peptide are operably linked. Therefore the transit peptide is fused in frame to the nucleic acid sequence coding for a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or 5 and its homologs as disclosed in table I, column 7, e.g. if for the nucleic acid molecule in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated.
[00355] The proteins translated from said inventive nucleic acid sequences are a kind of fusion proteins that means the nucleic acid sequences encoding the transit peptide, for ex- ample the ones shown in table V, for example the last one of the table, are joint to a gene, e.g. the nucleic acid sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, e.g. if for the nucleic acid molecule in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated. The person skilled in the art is able to join said sequences in a functional manner. Advantageously the transit peptide part is cleaved off from the protein part shown in table II, columns 5 and 7, during the transport preferably into the plastids. All products of the cleavage of the preferred transit peptide shown in the last line of table V have preferably the N-terminal amino acid sequences QIA CSS or QIA EFQLTT in front of the start methionine of the protein mentioned in table II, columns 5 and 7. Other short amino acid sequences of an range of 1 to 20 amino acids preferable 2 to 15 amino acids, more preferable 3 to 10 amino acids most preferably 4 to 8 amino acids are also possible in front of the start methionine of the gene, e.g. the protein mentioned in table II, columns 5 and 7. In case of the amino acid sequence QIA CSS the three amino acids in front of the start methionine are stemming from the LIC (= ligation independent cloning) cassette. Said short amino acid sequence is preferred in the case of the expression of Escherichia coli genes. In case of the amino acid sequence QIA EFQLTT the six amino acids in front of the start methionine are stemming from the LIC cassette. Said short amino acid sequence is preferred in the case of the expression of S. cerevisiae genes. The skilled worker knows that other short sequences are also useful in the expres- sion of the genes mentioned in table I, columns 5 and 7. Furthermore the skilled worker is aware of the fact that there is not a need for such short sequences in the expression of the genes.
[00356] Alternatively to the targeting of the gene, e.g. proteins having the sequences shown in table II, columns 5 and 7, preferably of sequences in general encoded in the nu- cleus with the aid of the targeting sequences mentioned for example in table V alone or in combination with other targeting sequences preferably into the plastids, the nucleic acids of the invention can directly be introduced into the plastidic genome, e.g. for which in column 6 of table II the term "plastidic" is indicated. Therefore in a preferred embodiment the gene, e.g. the nucleic acid sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7 are directly introduced and expressed in plastids, particularly if in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated.
[00357] By transforming the plastids the intraspecies specific transgene flow is blocked, because a lot of species such as corn, cotton and rice have a strict maternal inheritance of plastids. By placing the gene, e.g. the genes specified in table I, columns 5 and 7, e.g. if for the nucleic acid molecule in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated, or active fragments thereof in the plastids of plants, these genes will not be present in the pollen of said plants.
[00358] In another embodiment of the invention the gene, e.g. the nucleic acid molecules as shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, e.g. if in column 6 of table I the term "mitochondric" is indicated, used in the inventive process are transformed into mitochondria, which are metabolic active.
[00359] For a good expression in the plastids the gene, e.g. the nucleic acid sequences as shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, e.g. if in column 6 of table I the term "plastidic" is indicated, are introduced into an expression cassette using a preferably a promoter and termi- nator, which are active in plastids, preferably a chloroplast promoter. Examples of such promoters include the psbA promoter from the gene from spinach or pea, the rbcL promoter, and the atpB promoter from corn.
[00360] In one embodiment, the process of the present invention comprises one or more of the following steps:
(a) stabilizing a protein conferring the increased expression of a protein encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or of the polypeptide of the invention having the herein-mentioned activity selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate- dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribo- somal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1-protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S- transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial aspar- aginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen- evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyl- transferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter,
Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein and conferring increased yield, e.g. increasinga yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof ;
(b) stabilizing an mRNA conferring the increased expression of a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide as mentioned in (a);
(c) increasing the specific activity of a protein conferring the increased expression of a polypeptide as mentioned in (a); ;
(d) generating or increasing the expression of an endogenous or artificial transcription factor mediating the expression of a protein conferring the increased expression of a polypeptide as mentioned in (a);
(e) stimulating activity of a protein conferring the increased expression of a polypeptide as mentioned in (a), by adding one or more exogenous inducing factors to the organism or parts thereof;
(f) expressing a transgenic gene encoding a protein conferring the increased expression of a polypeptide as mentioned in (a); and/or
(g) increasing the copy number of a gene conferring the increased expression of a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide as mentioned in (a);;
(h) increasing the expression of the endogenous gene encoding a polypeptide as mentioned in (a) by adding positive expression or removing negative expression elements, e.g. homologous recombination can be used to either introduce positive regu- latory elements like for plants the 35S enhancer into the promoter or to remove repressor elements form regulatory regions. Further gene conversion methods can be used to disrupt repressor elements or to enhance to activity of positive elements- positive elements can be randomly introduced in plants by T-DNA or transposon mutagenesis and lines can be identified in which the positive elements have been in- tegrated near to a gene of the invention, the expression of which is thereby enhanced; and/or (i) modulating growth conditions of the plant in such a manner, that the expression or activity of the gene encoding a polypeptide as mentioned in (a), or the protein itself is enhanced;
(j) selecting of organisms with especially high activity of a polypeptide as mentioned in (a) from natural or from mutagenized resources and breeding them into the target organisms, e.g. the elite crops.
[00361] Preferably, said mRNA is encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention and/or the protein conferring the increased expression of a protein encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention alone or linked to a transit nucleic acid se- quence or transit peptide encoding nucleic acid sequence or the polypeptide having the herein mentioned activity, e.g. conferring with increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield- related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof after increasing the expression or activity of the encoded polypeptide or having the activity of a polypeptide having an activity as the protein as shown in table II column 3 or its homologs.
[00362] In general, the amount of mRNA or polypeptide in a cell or a compartment of an organism correlates with the amount of encoded protein and thus with the overall activity of the encoded protein in said volume. Said correlation is not always linear, the activity in the volume is dependent on the stability of the molecules or the presence of activating or inhibiting co-factors. The activity of the abovementioned proteins and/or polypeptides encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention can be increased in various ways. For example, the activity in an organism or in a part thereof, like a cell, is increased via increas- ing the gene product number, e.g. by increasing the expression rate, like introducing a stronger promoter, or by increasing the stability of the mRNA expressed, thus increasing the translation rate, and/or increasing the stability of the gene product, thus reducing the proteins decayed. Further, the activity or turnover of enzymes can be influenced in such a way that a reduction or increase of the reaction rate or a modification (reduction or in- crease) of the affinity to the substrate results, is reached. A mutation in the catalytic centre of an polypeptide of the invention, e.g. as enzyme, can modulate the turn over rate of the enzyme, e.g. a knock out of an essential amino acid can lead to a reduced or completely knock out activity of the enzyme, or the deletion or mutation of regulator binding sites can reduce a negative regulation like a feedback inhibition (or a substrate inhibition, if the sub- strate level is also increased). The specific activity of an enzyme of the present invention can be increased such that the turn over rate is increased or the binding of a co-factor is improved. Improving the stability of the encoding mRNA or the protein can also increase the activity of a gene product. The stimulation of the activity is also under the scope of the term "increased activity".
[00363] Moreover, the regulation of the abovementioned nucleic acid sequences may be modified so that gene expression is increased. This can be achieved advantageously by means of heterologous regulatory sequences or by modifying, for example mutating, the natural regulatory sequences which are present. The advantageous methods may also be combined with each other.
[00364] In general, an activity of a gene product in an organism or part thereof, in particular in a plant cell or organelle of a plant cell, a plant, or a plant tissue or a part thereof or in a microorganism can be increased by increasing the amount of the specific encoding mRNA or the corresponding protein in said organism or part thereof.
[00365] A modification, i.e. an increase, can be caused by endogenous or exogenous factors. For example, an increase in activity in an organism or a part thereof can be caused by adding a gene product or a precursor or an activator or an agonist to the media or nutrition or can be caused by introducing said subjects into a organism, transient or stable. Fur- thermore such an increase can be reached by the introduction of the inventive nucleic acid sequence or the encoded protein in the correct cell compartment for example into the nucleus or cytoplasm respectively or into plastids either by transformation and/or targeting.
[00366] In one embodiment the increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell in the plant or a part thereof, e.g. in a cell, a tissue, a organ, an organelle, the cytoplasm etc., is achieved by increasing the endogenous level of the polypeptide of the invention.
[00367] Accordingly, in an embodiment of the present invention, the present invention relates to a process wherein the gene copy number of a gene encoding the polynucleotide or nucleic acid molecule of the invention is increased. Further, the endogenous level of the polypeptide of the invention can for example be increased by modifying the transcriptional or translational regulation of the polypeptide.
[00368] In one embodiment the increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait of the plant or part thereof can be altered by targeted or random mutagenesis of the endogenous genes of the inven- tion. For example homologous recombination can be used to either introduce positive regulatory elements like for plants the 35S enhancer into the promoter or to remove repressor elements form regulatory regions. In addition gene conversion like methods described by Kochevenko and Willmitzer (Plant Physiol. 132 (1), 174 (2003)) and citations therein can be used to disrupt repressor elements or to enhance to activity of positive regulatory elements.
[00369] Furthermore positive elements can be randomly introduced in (plant) genomes by T-DNA or transposon mutagenesis and lines can be screened for, in which the positive elements have been integrated near to a gene of the invention, the expression of which is thereby enhanced. The activation of plant genes by random integrations of enhancer elements has been described by Hayashi et al. (Science 258,1350 (1992)) or Weigel et al. (Plant Physiol. 122, 1003 (2000)) and others recited therein. The enhancement of positive regulatory elements or the disruption or weakening of negative regulatory elements can also be achieved through common mutagenesis techniques: The production of chemically or radiation mutated populations is a common technique and known to the skilled worker. Methods for plants are described by Koorneef et al. (Mutat Res. Mar. 93 (1 ) (1982)) and the citations therein and by Lightner and Caspar in "Methods in Molecular Biology" Vol. 82. These techniques usually induce point mutations that can be identified in any known gene using methods such as TILLING (Colbert et al., Plant Physiol, 126, (2001)).
[00370] Accordingly, the expression level can be increased if the endogenous genes encoding a polypeptide conferring an increased expression of the polypeptide of the present invention, in particular genes comprising the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention, are modified via homologous recombination, Tilling approaches or gene conversion. It also possible to add as mentioned herein targeting sequences to the inventive nu- cleic acid sequences.
[00371] Regulatory sequences, if desired, in addition to a target sequence or part thereof can be operatively linked to the coding region of an endogenous protein and control its transcription and translation or the stability or decay of the encoding mRNA or the expressed protein. In order to modify and control the expression, promoter, UTRs, splicing sites, processing signals, polyadenylation sites, terminators, enhancers, repressors, post transcriptional or posttranslational modification sites can be changed, added or amended. For example, the activation of plant genes by random integrations of enhancer elements has been described by Hayashi et al. (Science 258, 1350(1992)) or Weigel et al. (Plant Physiol. 122, 1003 (2000)) and others recited therein. For example, the expression level of the endogenous protein can be modulated by replacing the endogenous promoter with a stronger transgenic promoter or by replacing the endogenous 3'UTR with a 3'UTR, which provides more stability without amending the coding region. Further, the transcriptional regulation can be modulated by introduction of an artificial transcription factor as described in the examples. Alternative promoters, terminators and UTR are described below.
[00372] The activation of an endogenous polypeptide having above-mentioned activity, e.g. having the activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or of the polypeptide of the invention, e.g. conferring increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrin- sic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof after increase of expression or activity in the cytoplasm and/or in an organelle like a plastid, can also be increased by introducing a synthetic transcription factor, which binds close to the coding region of the gene encoding the protein as shown in table II, column 3 and activates its transcription.
[00373] In one further embodiment of the process according to the invention, organisms are used in which one of the abovementioned genes, or one of the abovementioned nucleic acids, is mutated in a way that the activity of the encoded gene products is less influenced by cellular factors, or not at all, in comparison with the not mutated proteins. For example, well known regulation mechanism of enzyme activity are substrate inhibition or feed back regulation mechanisms. Ways and techniques for the introduction of substitution, deletions and additions of one or more bases, nucleotides or amino acids of a corresponding sequence are described herein below in the corresponding paragraphs and the references listed there, e.g. in Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning, Cold Spring Harbour, NY, 1989. The person skilled in the art will be able to identify regulation domains and binding sites of regulators by comparing the sequence of the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention or the expression product thereof with the state of the art by computer software means which comprise algorithms for the identifying of binding sites and regulation domains or by introducing into a nucleic acid molecule or in a protein systematically mutations and assaying for those mutations which will lead to an increased specific activity or an increased activity per volume, in particular per cell.
[00374] It can therefore be advantageous to express in an organism a nucleic acid molecule of the invention or a polypeptide of the invention derived from a evolutionary distantly related organism, as e.g. using a prokaryotic gene in a eukaryotic host, as in these cases the regulation mechanism of the host cell may not weaken the activity (cellular or specific) of the gene or its expression product.
[00375] The mutation is introduced in such a way that increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for ex- ample an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait are not adversely affected.
[00376] The invention provides that the above methods can be performed such that enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related traits increased, wherein particularly the tolerance to low temperature is increased.
[00377] The invention is not limited to specific nucleic acids, specific polypeptides, specific cell types, specific host cells, specific conditions or specific methods etc. as such, but may vary and numerous modifications and variations therein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing specific embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting.
[00378] Further, "proteins are generally composed of one or more functional regions, commonly termed domains. Different combinations of domains give rise to the diverse range of proteins found in nature. The identification of domains that occur within proteins can therefore provide insights into their function. Pfam-A entries are high quality, manually curated families. The Pfam database is a large collection of protein families, each represented by multiple sequence alignments and hidden Markov models (HMMs). "(see: The Pfam protein families database: R.D. Finn, et al., Nucleic Acids Research (2010), Database Issue 38:D211 -222). The Pfam protein families database is a large collection of more than ten thousand protein families and is available under http://pfam.sanger.ac.uk/. Profile Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are flexible, probabilistic models that can be used to describe the consensus patterns shared by sets of homologous protein / domain sequences. HMMs in the Pfam database are constructed from an alignment of a representative set of se- quences for each protein domain, called a seed alignment.
The Pfam domains listed in the present application refer to Pfam 24.0 (released October 2009, containing 11912 families). [00379] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF01789.9 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00380] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 385 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF01789.9, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00381] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 385, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF01789.9, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00382] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF03171.13 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00383] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 505 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF03171.13, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00384] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 505, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF03171.13, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant. [00385] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00160.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00386] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%,
85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 673 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00160.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00387] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 673, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00160.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00388] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF05703.4 and PF08458.3 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00389] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1629 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF05703.4 and PF08458.3, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00390] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1629, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF05703.4 and PF08458.3, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00391] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00288.19 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00392] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%,
85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1710 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00288.19, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide en- coded by said polynucleotide.
[00393] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1710, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00288.19, and the polypeptide's expression is confer- ring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00394] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00459.18 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00395] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 2227 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00459.18, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00396] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 2227, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00459.18, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00397] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00108.16 and PF02803.1 1 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00398] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 2458 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00108.16 and PF02803.1 1 , and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00399] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 2458, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00108.16 and PF02803.1 1 , and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00400] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF01246.13 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00401] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%,
85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 3464 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF01246.13, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide en- coded by said polynucleotide.
[00402] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 3464, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF01246.13, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00403] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00464.12 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00404] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 3795 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00464.12, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00405] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 3795, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00464.12, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00406] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF02664.8 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00407] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 4631 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF02664.8, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00408] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 4631 , i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF02664.8, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00409] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00071.15 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00410] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%,
85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5070 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00071.15, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00411] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5070, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00071.15, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00412] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF01918.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00413] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5839 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF01918.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00414] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5839, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF01918.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00415] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF06426.7 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00416] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5983 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF06426.7, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00417] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 5983, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF06426.7, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00418] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00125.17 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule. [00419] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 6495 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00125.17, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00420] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 6495, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00125.17, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00421] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00069.18 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00422] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7435 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00069.18, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00423] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7435, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00069.18, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00424] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00847.13 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00425] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7514 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00847.13, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00426] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7514, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00847.13, and the polypeptide's expression is confer- ring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00427] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF03345.7 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00428] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7546 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF03345.7, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00429] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7546, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF03345.7, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00430] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF04755.5 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00431] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8288 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF04755.5, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00432] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8288, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF04755.5, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00433] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF01501.13 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00434] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7865 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF01501.13, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide en- coded by said polynucleotide.
[00435] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 7865, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF01501.13, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00436] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF06200.7 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00437] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8065 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF06200.7, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00438] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8065, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF06200.7, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00439] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00829.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00440] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8105 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00829.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00441] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8105, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00829.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00442] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00447.10 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00443] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8207 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00447.10, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00444] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8207, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00447.10, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00445] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF0001 1.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00446] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8409 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00011.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00447] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8409, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF0001 1.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00448] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF001 18.17 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00449] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8843 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF001 18.17, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00450] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 8843, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF001 18.17, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant. [00451] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00152.13 and PF01336.18 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00452] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 9982 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00152.13 and PF01336.18, and confer- ring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00453] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 9982, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00152.13 and PF01336.18, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00454] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00582.19 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00455] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 10881 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00582.19, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00456] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 10881 , i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00582.19, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00457] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00011.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00458] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 10966 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF0001 1.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide. [00459] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 10966, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF0001 1.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00460] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF02171.10, PF02170.15, and PF08699.3 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00461] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF02171.10, PF02170.15, and
PF08699.3, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00462] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1 1419, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising fur- ther one or more of the Pfam domains PF02171.10, PF02170.15, and PF08699.3, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00463] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF02798.13 and PF00043.18 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also re- lates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00464] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1 1753 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF02798.13 and PF00043.18, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00465] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 1 1753, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF02798.13 and PF00043.18, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00466] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF03760.8 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00467] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12197 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF03760.8, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00468] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12197, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF03760.8, and the polypeptide's expression is con- ferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00469] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF04564.8 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00470] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12317 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF04564.8, and conferring the in- crease of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00471] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12317, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising fur- ther one or more of the Pfam domains PF04564.8, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00472] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF01918.14 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00473] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12574 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF01918.14, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00474] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12574, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF01918.14, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00475] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00067.15 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00476] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12669 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00067.15, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00477] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 12669, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00067.15, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00478] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00487.17 and PF00173.21 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00479] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13132 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00487.17 and PF00173.21 , and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00480] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13132, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising fur- ther one or more of the Pfam domains PF00487.17 and PF00173.21 , and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00481] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF09425.3 and PF06200.7 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also re- lates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00482] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13277 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF09425.3 and PF06200.7, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00483] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13277, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF09425.3 and PF06200.7, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00484] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF02902.12 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00485] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13437 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF02902.12, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00486] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13437, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF02902.12, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00487] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00806.12 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00488] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13478 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00806.12, and conferring the in- crease of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00489] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13478, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising fur- ther one or more of the Pfam domains PF00806.12, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00490] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00888.15 and PF10557.2 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also re- lates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00491] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13552 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00888.15 and PF10557.2, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00492] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13552, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00888.15 and PF10557.2, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00493] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF03152.7 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00494] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13246 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF03152.7, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypep- tide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00495] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13246, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF03152.7, and the polypeptide's expression is con- ferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00496] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00036.25 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00497] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13310 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00036.25, and conferring the in- crease of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00498] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13310, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising fur- ther one or more of the Pfam domains PF00036.25, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00499] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising one or more of the Pfam domains PF00179.19 for the production of a plant with increased yield as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule.
[00500] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which is 50% or more, preferably 60%, 70%, or 75%, more preferably 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, even more preferred 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more and most preferred 100% identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13103 comprising one or more of the Pfam domains selected from the group consitists of: PF00179.19, and conferring the increase of the yield of a plant as described herein. The invention also relates to the polypeptide encoded by said polynucleotide.
[00501] Further, the present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence of the homologs of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 13103, i.e. as shown in column 7 of table IV, and said polypeptide comprising further one or more of the Pfam domains PF00179.19, and the polypeptide's expression is conferring the increase of the yield of a plant.
[00502] The present invention also relates to isolated nucleic acids comprising a nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of:
(a) a nucleic acid molecule encoding the polypeptide shown in column 7 of table II B;
(b) a nucleic acid molecule shown in column 7 of table I B,
(c) a nucleic acid molecule, which, as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be derived from a polypeptide sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II, and confers increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof;
(d) a nucleic acid molecule having 30% or more identity, preferably 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99%, 99,5%, or more with the nucleic acid molecule sequence of a polynucleotide comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I, and confers increased yield, e.g. increased yield- related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof ;
(e) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having 30% or more identity, preferably at least 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99%, 99,5% or more, with the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of (a), (b), (c) or (d) and having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I, and confers increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof;
(f) nucleic acid molecule which hybridizes with a nucleic acid molecule of (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) under stringent hybridization conditions and confers increased yield, e.g. an in- creased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof;
(g) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which can be isolated with the aid of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies made against a polypeptide encoded by one of the nucleic acid molecules of (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) or (f) and having the activity represented by the nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I;
(h) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence or one or more polypeptide motifs as shown in column 7 of table IV, and preferably having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV;
(i) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein as depicted in column 5 of table II, and confers increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof;
(j) nucleic acid molecule which comprises a polynucleotide, which is obtained by amplifying a cDNA library or a genomic library using the primers in column 7 of table III, and preferably having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV, and
(k) a nucleic acid molecule which is obtainable by screening a suitable nucleic acid library, especially a cDNA library and/or a genomic library, under stringent hybridization conditions with a probe comprising a complementary sequence of a nucleic acid molecule of (a) or (b) or with a fragment thereof, having 15 nt, preferably 20 nt, 30 nt, 50 nt, 100 nt, 200 nt, 500 nt, 750 nt or 1000 nt or more of a nucleic acid molecule complementary to a nucleic acid molecule sequence characterized in (a) to (e) and encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II.
In one embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule according to (a),(b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i), (j) and (k) is at least in one or more nucleotides different from the sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table I A, and preferably which encodes a protein which differs at least in one or more amino acids from the protein sequences depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II A. For example the nucleic acid molecule according to (a),(b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i), (j) and (k) is from table I B. [00503] In one embodiment the invention relates to homologs of the aforementioned sequences, which can be isolated advantageously from yeast, fungi, viruses, algae, bacteria, such as Acetobacter (subgen. Acetobacter) aceti; Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans; Acineto- bacter sp.; Actinobacillus sp; Aeromonas salmonicida; Agrobacterium tumefaciens; Aquifex aeolicus; Arcanobacterium pyogenes; Aster yellows phytoplasma; Bacillus sp.; Bifidobacterium sp.; Borrelia burgdorferi; Brevibacterium linens; Brucella melitensis; Buchnera sp.; Bu- tyri vibrio fibrisolvens; Campylobacter jejuni; Caulobacter crescentus; Chlamydia sp.; Chla- mydophila sp.; Chlorobium limicola; Citrobacter rodentium; Clostridium sp.; Comamonas testosteroni; Corynebacterium sp.; Coxiella burnetii; Deinococcus radiodurans; Dichelobac- ter nodosus; Edwardsiella ictaluri; Enterobacter sp.; Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae; E. coil; Flavobacterium sp.; Francisella tularensis; Frankia sp. Cpl1; Fusobacterium nucleatum; Geobacillus stearothermophilus; Gluconobacter oxydans; Haemophilus sp.; Helicobacter pylori; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Lactobacillus sp.; Lactococcus lactis; Listeria sp.; Mann- heimia haemolytica; Mesorhizobium loti; Methylophaga thalassica; Microcystis aeruginosa; Microscilla sp. PRE1; Moraxella sp. TA144; Mycobacterium sp.; Mycoplasma sp.; Neisseria sp.; Nitrosomonas sp.; Nostoc sp. PCC 7120; Novosphingobium aromaticivorans; Oeno- coccus oeni; Pantoea citrea; Pasteurella multocida; Pediococcus pentosaceus; Phormidium foveolarum; Phytoplasma sp.; Plectonema boryanum; Prevotella ruminicola; Propionibacte- rium sp.; Proteus vulgaris; Pseudomonas sp.; Ralstonia sp.; Rhizobium sp.; Rhodococcus equi; Rhodothermus marinus; Rickettsia sp.; Riemerella anatipestifer; Ruminococcus flave- faciens; Salmonella sp.; Selenomonas ruminantium; Serratia entomophila; Shigella sp.; Si- norhizobium meliloti; Staphylococcus sp.; Streptococcus sp.; Streptomyces sp.; Synecho- coccus sp.; Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803; Thermotoga maritima; Treponema sp.; Urea- plasma urealyticum; Vibrio cholerae; Vibrio parahaemolyticus; Xylella fastidiosa; Yersinia sp.; Zymomonas mobilis, preferably Salmonella sp. or E. coli or plants, preferably from yeasts such as from the genera Saccharomyces, Pichia, Candida, Hansenula, Torulopsis or Schizosaccharomyces or plants such as A. thaliana, maize, wheat, rye, oat, triticale, rice, barley, soybean, peanut, cotton, borage, sunflower, linseed, primrose, rapeseed, canola and turnip rape, manihot, pepper, sunflower, tagetes, solanaceous plant such as potato, tobacco, eggplant and tomato, Vicia species, pea, alfalfa, bushy plants such as coffee, cacao, tea, Salix species, trees such as oil palm, coconut, perennial grass, such as ryegrass and fescue, and forage crops, such as alfalfa and clover and from spruce, pine or fir for example. More preferably homologs of aforementioned sequences can be isolated from S. cerevisiae, E. coli or Synechocystis sp. or plants, preferably Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays, cotton or Oryza sativa.
[00504] The proteins of the present invention are preferably produced by recombinant DNA techniques. For example, a nucleic acid molecule encoding the protein is cloned into an expression vector, for example in to a binary vector, the expression vector is introduced into a host cell, for example the A. thaliana wild type NASC N906 or any other plant cell as described in the examples see below, and the protein is expressed in said host cell. Examples for binary vectors are pBIN19, pB1101 , pBinAR (Hofgen and Willmitzer, Plant Science 66, 221 (1990)), pGPTV, pCAMBIA, pBIB-HYG, pBecks, pGreen or pPZP (Hajukiewicz, P. et al., Plant Mol. Biol. 25, 989 (1994), and Hellens et al, Trends in Plant Science 5, 446 (2000)).
[00505] In one embodiment the protein of the present invention is preferably produced in an compartment of the cell, e.g. in the plastids. Ways of introducing nucleic acids into plas- tids and producing proteins in this compartment are known to the person skilled in the art have been also described in this application. In one embodiment, the polypeptide of the invention is a protein localized after expression as indicated in column 6 of table II, e.g. non- targeted, mitochondrial or plastidic, for example it is fused to a transit peptide as decribed above for plastidic localisation. In another embodiment the protein of the present invention is produced without further targeting signal (e.g. as mentioned herein), e.g. in the cytoplasm of the cell. Ways of producing proteins in the cytoplasm are known to the person skilled in the art. Ways of producing proteins without artificial targeting are known to the person skilled in the art.
[00506] Advantageously, the nucleic acid sequences according to the invention or the gene construct together with at least one reporter gene are cloned into an expression cas- sette, which is introduced into the organism via a vector or directly into the genome. This reporter gene should allow easy detection via a growth, fluorescence, chemical, biolumi- nescence or tolerance assay or via a photometric measurement. Examples of reporter genes which may be mentioned are antibiotic- or herbicide-tolerance genes, hydrolase genes, fluorescence protein genes, bioluminescence genes, sugar or nucleotide metabolic genes or biosynthesis genes such as the Ura3 gene, the Ilv2 gene, the luciferase gene, the β-galactosidase gene, the gfp gene, the 2-desoxyglucose-6-phosphate phosphatase gene, the β-glucuronidase gene, β-lactamase gene, the neomycin phosphotransferase gene, the hygromycin phosphotransferase gene, a mutated a ceto hydroxy acid synthase (AHAS) gene (also known as acetolactate synthase (ALS) gene), a gene for a D-amino acid metabolizing enzmye or the BASTA (= gluphosinate-tolerance) gene. These genes permit easy measurement and quantification of the transcription activity and hence of the expression of the genes. In this way genome positions may be identified which exhibit differing productivity. For expression a person skilled in the art is familiar with different methods to introduce the nucleic acid sequences into different organelles such as the preferred plastids. Such meth- ods are for example disclosed by Maiga P.(Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. 55, 289 (2004)), Evans T. (WO 2004/040973), McBride K.E.et al. (US 5,455,818), Daniell H. et al. (US 5,932,479 and US 5,693,507) and Straub J.M. et al. (US 6,781 ,033). A preferred method is the transformation of microspore-derived hypocotyl or cotyledonary tissue (which are green and thus contain numerous plastids) leaf tissue and afterwards the regeneration of shoots from said transformed plant material on selective medium. As methods for the transformation bombarding of the plant material or the use of independently replicating shuttle vectors are well known by the skilled worker. But also a PEG-mediated transformation of the plastids or Agrobacterium transformation with binary vectors is possible. Useful markers for the transformation of plastids are positive selection markers for example the chloramphenicol-, strep- tomycin-, kanamycin-, neomycin-, amikamycin-, spectinomycin-, triazine- and/or lincomycin- tolerance genes. As additional markers named in the literature often as secondary markers, genes coding for the tolerance against herbicides such as phosphinothricin (= glufosinate, BASTA™, Liberty™, encoded by the bar gene), glyphosate (= N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine, Roundup™, encoded by the 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase gene = epsps), sulfonylureas ( like Staple™, encoded by the acetolactate synthase (ALS) gene), imidazoli- nones [= I Ml, like imazethapyr, imazamox, Clearfield™, encoded by the acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS) gene, also known as acetolactate synthase (ALS) gene] or bromoxynil (= Buctril™, encoded by the oxy gene) or genes coding for antibiotics such as hygromycin or G418 are useful for further selection. Such secondary markers are useful in the case when most genome copies are transformed. In addition negative selection markers such as the bacterial cytosine deaminase (encoded by the codA gene) are also useful for the transformation of plastids.
[00507] To increase the possibility of identification of transformants it is also desirable to use reporter genes other then the aforementioned tolerance genes or in addition to said genes. Reporter genes are for example β-galactosidase-, -glucuronidase-(GUS), alkaline phosphatase- and/or green-fluorescent protein-genes (GFP).
[00508] In a preferred embodiment a nucleic acid construct, for example an expression cassette, comprises upstream, i.e. at the 5' end of the encoding sequence, a promoter and downstream, i.e. at the 3' end, a polyadenylation signal and optionally other regulatory elements which are operably linked to the intervening encoding sequence with one of the nucleic acids of SEQ ID NO as depicted in table I, column 5 and 7. By an operable linkage is meant the sequential arrangement of promoter, encoding sequence, terminator and option- ally other regulatory elements in such a way that each of the regulatory elements can fulfill its function in the expression of the encoding sequence in due manner. In one embodiment the sequences preferred for operable linkage are targeting sequences for ensuring subcellular localization in plastids. However, targeting sequences for ensuring subcellular localization in the mitochondrium, in the endoplasmic reticulum (= ER), in the nucleus, in oil cor- puscles or other compartments may also be employed as well as translation promoters such as the 5' lead sequence in tobacco mosaic virus (Gallie et al., Nucl. Acids Res. 15 8693 (1987)).
[00509] A nucleic acid construct, for example an expression cassette may, for example, contain a constitutive promoter or a tissue-specific promoter (preferably the USP or napin promoter) the gene to be expressed and the ER retention signal. For the ER retention signal the KDEL amino acid sequence (lysine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, leucine) or the KKX amino acid sequence (lysine-lysine-X-stop, wherein X means every other known amino acid) is preferably employed.
[00510] For expression in a host organism, for example a plant, the expression cassette is advantageously inserted into a vector such as by way of example a plasmid, a phage or other DNA which allows optimal expression of the genes in the host organism. Examples of suitable plasmids are: in E. coli pLG338, pACYC184, pBR series such as e.g. pBR322, pUC series such as pUC18 or pUC19, M113mp series, pKC30, pRep4, pHS1 , pHS2, pPLc236, pMBL24, pLG200, pUR290, pIN-IIM 13-B1 , Agt1 1 or pBdCI; in Streptomyces plJ101 , plJ364, plJ702 or plJ361 ; in Bacillus pUB110, pC194 or pBD214; in Corynebacte- rium pSA77 or pAJ667; in fungi pALS1 , plL2 or pBB116; other advantageous fungal vectors are described by Romanos M.A. et al., Yeast 8, 423 (1992) and by van den Hondel, C. A.M. J. J. et al. [(1991 ) "Heterologous gene expression in filamentous fungi"] as well as in "More Gene Manipulations" in "Fungi" in Bennet J.W. & Lasure L.L., eds., pp. 396-428, Academic Press, San Diego, and in "Gene transfer systems and vector development for filamentous fungi" [van den Hondel, C.A.M.J.J. & Punt, P.J. (1991 ) in: Applied Molecular Genetics of Fungi, Peberdy, J.F. et al., eds., pp. 1 -28, Cambridge University Press: Cam- bridge]. Examples of advantageous yeast promoters are 2μΜ, pAG-1 , YEp6, YEp13 or pEMBLYe23. Examples of algal or plant promoters are pLGV23, pGHIac+, pBIN19, pAK2004, pVKH or pDH51 (see Schmidt, R. and Willmitzer, L, Plant Cell Rep. 7, 583 (1988))). The vectors identified above or derivatives of the vectors identified above are a small selection of the possible plasmids. Further plasmids are well known to those skilled in the art and may be found, for example, in "Cloning Vectors" (Eds. Pouwels P.H. et al. Elsevier, Amsterdam-New York-Oxford, 1985, ISBN 0 444 904018). Suitable plant vectors are described inter alia in " Methods in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology" (CRC Press, Ch. 6/7, pp. 71 -1 19). Advantageous vectors are known as shuttle vectors or binary vectors which replicate in E. coli and Agrobacterium.
[00511] In a further embodiment of the vector the expression cassette according to the invention may also advantageously be introduced into the organisms in the form of a linear DNA and be integrated into the genome of the host organism by way of heterologous or homologous recombination. This linear DNA may be composed of a linearized plasmid or only of the expression cassette as vector or the nucleic acid sequences according to the invention.
[00512] A nucleic acid sequence can also be introduced into an organism on its own.
[00513] If in addition to the nucleic acid sequence according to the invention further genes are to be introduced into the organism, all together with a reporter gene in a single vector or each single gene with a reporter gene in a vector in each case can be introduced into the organism, whereby the different vectors can be introduced simultaneously or successively.
[00514] The vector advantageously contains at least one copy of the nucleic acid sequences according to the invention and/or the expression cassette (= gene construct) according to the invention.
[00515] The invention further provides an isolated recombinant expression vector comprising a nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide as depicted in table II, column 5 or 7, wherein expression of the vector in a host cell results in increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a wild type variety of the host cell.
[00516] The recombinant expression vectors of the invention comprise a nucleic acid of the invention in a form suitable for expression of the nucleic acid in a host cell, which means that the recombinant expression vectors include one or more regulatory sequences, se- lected on the basis of the host cells to be used for expression, which is operatively linked to the nucleic acid sequence to be expressed. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the design of the expression vector can depend on such factors as the choice of the host cell to be transformed, the level of expression of polypeptide desired, etc. The expres- sion vectors of the invention can be introduced into host cells to thereby produce polypeptides or peptides, including fusion polypeptides or peptides, encoded by nucleic acids as described herein.
[00517] The recombinant expression vectors of the invention can be designed for ex- pression of the polypeptide of the invention in plant cells. For example, nucleic acid molecules of the present invention can be expressed in plant cells (see Schmidt R., and
Willmitzer L, Plant Cell Rep. 7 (1988); Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, C Press, Boca Raton, Florida, Chapter 6/7, p. 71 -1 19 (1993); White F.F., Jenes B. et al., Techniques for Gene Transfer, in: Transgenic Plants, Vol. 1 , Engineering and Utilization, eds. Kung und Wu R., 128-43, Academic Press: 1993; Potrykus, Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Molec. Biol. 42, 205 (1991 ) and references cited therein). Suitable host cells are discussed further in Goeddel, Gene Expression Technology: Methods in Enzymology 185, Academic Press: San Diego, CA (1990). By way of example the plant expression cassette can be installed in the pRT transformation vector ((a) Toepfer et al., Methods Enzymol. 217, 66 (1993), (b) Toepfer et al., Nucl. Acids. Res. 15, 5890 (1987)). Alternatively, a recombinant vector (= expression vector) can also be transcribed and translated in vitro, e.g. by using the T7 promoter and the T7 RNA polymerase.
[00518] In an further embodiment of the present invention, the nucleic acid molecules of the invention are expressed in plants and plants cells such as unicellular plant cells (e.g. algae) (see Falciatore et al., Marine Biotechnology 1 (3), 239 (1999) and references therein) and plant cells from higher plants (e.g., the spermatophytes, such as crop plants), for example to regenerate plants from the plant cells. A nucleic acid molecule depicted in table II, column 5 or 7 may be "introduced" into a plant cell by any means, including transfection, transformation or transduction, electroporation, particle bombardment, agroinfection, and the like. One transformation method known to those of skill in the art is the dipping of a flowering plant into an Agrobacteria solution, wherein the Agrobacteria contains the nucleic acid of the invention, followed by breeding of the transformed gametes. Other suitable methods for transforming or transfecting host cells including plant cells can be found in Sambrook et al., supra, and other laboratory manuals such as Methods in Molecular Biol- ogy, 1995, Vol. 44, Agrobacterium protocols, ed: Gartland and Davey, Humana Press, To- towa, New Jersey.
[00519] In one embodiment of the present invention, transfection of a nucleic acid molecule coding for a nucleic acid molecule depicted in table II, column 5 or 7 into a plant is achieved by Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer. Agrobacterium mediated plant trans- formation can be performed using for example the GV3101 (pMP90) (Koncz and Schell, Mol. Gen. Genet. 204, 383 (1986)) or LBA4404 (Clontech) Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain. Transformation can be performed by standard transformation and regeneration techniques (Deblaere et al., Nucl. Acids Res. 13, 4777 (1994), Gelvin, Stanton B. and Schil- peroort Robert A, Plant Molecular Biology Manual, 2nd Ed. - Dordrecht : Kluwer Academic Publ., 1995. - in Sect., Ringbuc Zentrale Signatur: BT1 1 -P ISBN 0-7923-2731 -4; Glick Bernard R., Thompson John E., Methods in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1993 360 S., ISBN 0-8493-5164-2). For example, rapeseed can be transformed via cotyledon or hypocotyl transformation (Moloney et al., Plant Cell Report 8, 238 (1989); De Block et al., Plant Physiol. 91 , 694 (1989)). Use of antibiotics for Agrobacte- rium and plant selection depends on the binary vector and the Agrobacterium strain used for transformation. Rapeseed selection is normally performed using kanamycin as selectable plant marker. Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer to flax can be performed using, for example, a technique described by Mlynarova et al., Plant Cell Report 13, 282 (1994). Additionally, transformation of soybean can be performed using for example a technique described in European Patent No. 424 047, U.S. Patent No. 5,322,783, European Patent No. 397 687, U.S. Patent No. 5,376,543 or U.S. Patent No. 5,169,770. Transformation of maize can be achieved by particle bombardment, polyethylene glycol mediated DNA uptake or via the silicon carbide fiber technique. (See, for example, Freeling and Walbot "The maize handbook" Springer Verlag: New York (1993) ISBN 3-540-97826-7). A specific example of maize transformation is found in U.S. Patent No. 5,990,387, and a specific example of wheat transformation can be found in PCT Application No. WO 93/07256.
[00520] According to the present invention, the introduced nucleic acid molecule coding for a polypeptides depicted in table II, column 5 or 77, or homologs thereof, may be maintained in the plant cell stably if it is incorporated into a non-chromosomal autonomous repli- con or integrated into the plant chromosomes or organelle genome. Alternatively, the introduced nucleic acid molecule may be present on an extra-chromosomal non-replicating vector and be transiently expressed or transiently active.
[00521] In one embodiment, a homologous recombinant microorganism can be created wherein the nucleic acid moleculeis integrated into a chromosome, a vector is prepared which contains at least a portion of a nucleic acid molecule coding for a protein depicted in table II, column 5 or 7 into which a deletion, addition, or substitution has been introduced to thereby alter, e.g., functionally disrupt, the gene. For example, the gene is a yeast gene, like a gene of S. cerevisiae, or of Synechocystis, or a bacterial gene, like an E. coli gene, but it can be a homolog from a related plant or even from a mammalian or insect source. The vector can be designed such that, upon homologous recombination, the endogenous nucleic acid molecule coding for a protein depicted in table II, column 5 or 7 is mutated or otherwise altered but still encodes a functional polypeptide (e.g., the upstream regulatory region can be altered to thereby alter the expression of the endogenous nucleic acid molecule). In a preferred embodiment the biological activity of the protein of the invention is increased upon homologous recombination. To create a point mutation via homologous recombination, DNA-RNA hybrids can be used in a technique known as chimeraplasty (Cole- Strauss et al., Nucleic Acids Research 27 (5), 1323 (1999) and Kmiec, Gene Therapy American Scientist. 87 (3), 240 (1999)). Homologous recombination procedures in Phy- scomitrella patens are also well known in the art and are contemplated for use herein.
[00522] Whereas in the homologous recombination vector, the altered portion of the nucleic acid molecule coding for a protein depicted in table II, column 5 or 7 is flanked at its 5' and 3' ends by an additional nucleic acid molecule of the gene to allow for homologous re- combination to occur between the exogenous gene carried by the vector and an endogenous gene, in a microorganism or plant. The additional flanking nucleic acid molecule is of sufficient length for successful homologous recombination with the endogenous gene. Typically, several hundreds of base pairs up to kilobases of flanking DNA (both at the 5' and 3' ends) are included in the vector. See, e.g., Thomas K.R., and Capecchi M.R., Cell 51 , 503 (1987) for a description of homologous recombination vectors or Strepp et al., PNAS, 95 (8), 4368 (1998) for cDNA based recombination in Physcomitrella patens. The vector is introduced into a microorganism or plant cell (e.g. via polyethylene glycol mediated DNA), and cells in which the introduced gene has homologously recombined with the endogenous gene are selected using art-known techniques.
[00523] Whether present in an extra-chromosomal non-replicating vector or a vector that is integrated into a chromosome, the nucleic acid molecule coding for a nucleic acid molecules depicted in table II, column 5 or 7 preferably resides in a plant expression cassette. A plant expression cassette preferably contains regulatory sequences capable of driving gene expression in plant cells that are operatively linked so that each sequence can fulfill its function, for example, termination of transcription by polyadenylation signals. Preferred polyadenylation signals are those originating from Agrobacterium tumefaciens t-DNA such as the gene 3 known as octopine synthase of the Ti-plasmid pTiACH5 (Gielen et al., EMBO J. 3, 835 (1984)) or functional equivalents thereof but also all other terminators functionally active in plants are suitable. As plant gene expression is very often not limited on transcriptional levels, a plant expression cassette preferably contains other operatively linked sequences like translational enhancers such as the overdrive-sequence containing the 5'- untranslated leader sequence from tobacco mosaic virus enhancing the polypeptide per RNA ratio (Gallie et al., Nucl. Acids Research 15, 8693 (1987)). Examples of plant expression vectors include those detailed in: Becker D. et al., Plant Mol. Biol. 20, 1 195 (1992); and Bevan M.W., Nucl. Acid. Res. 12, 871 1 (1984); and "Vectors for Gene Transfer in Higher Plants" in: Transgenic Plants, Vol. 1 , Engineering and Utilization, eds. Kung and Wu R., Academic Press, 1993, S. 15-38.
[00524] The host organism (= transgenic organism) advantageously contains at least one copy of the nucleic acid according to the invention and/or of the nucleic acid construct according to the invention.
[00525] As increased tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or yield is a general trait wished to be inherited into a wide variety of plants like maize, wheat, rye, oat, triticale, rice, barley, soybean, peanut, cotton, rapeseed and canola, manihot, pepper, sunflower and tagetes, solanaceous plants like potato, tobacco, eggplant, and tomato, Vicia species, pea, alfalfa, bushy plants (coffee, cacao, tea), Salix species, trees (oil palm, coconut), perennial grasses, and forage crops, these crop plants are also preferred target plants for a genetic engineering as one further embodiment of the present invention. Forage crops include, but are not limited to Wheatgrass, Canarygrass, Bromegrass, Wildrye Grass, Bluegrass, Or- chardgrass, Alfalfa, Salfoin, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Alsike Clover, Red Clover and Sweet Clover.
[00526] In principle all plants can be used as host organism. Preferred transgenic plants are, for example, selected from the families Aceraceae, Anacardiaceae, Apiaceae, As- teraceae, Brassicaceae, Cactaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Malva- ceae, Nymphaeaceae, Papaveraceae, Rosaceae, Salicaceae, Solanaceae, Arecaceae, Bromeliaceae, Cyperaceae, Iridaceae, Liliaceae, Orchidaceae, Gentianaceae, Labiaceae, Magnoliaceae, Ranunculaceae, Carifolaceae, Rubiaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Caryophylla- ceae, Ericaceae, Polygonaceae, Violaceae, Juncaceae or Poaceae and preferably from a plant selected from the group of the families Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae, Papaveraceae, Rosaceae, Solanaceae, Liliaceae or Poaceae. Preferred are crop plants such as plants advantageously selected from the group of the genus peanut, oilseed rape, canola, sunflower, safflower, olive, sesame, hazelnut, almond, avocado, bay, pumpkin/squash, linseed, soya, pistachio, borage, maize, wheat, rye, oats, sorghum and millet, triticale, rice, barley, cassava, potato, sugarbeet, egg plant, alfalfa, and perennial grasses and forage plants, oil palm, vegetables (brassicas, root vegetables, tuber vegetables, pod vegetables, fruiting vegetables, onion vegetables, leafy vegetables and stem vegetables), buckwheat, Jerusalem artichoke, broad bean, vetches, lentil, dwarf bean, lu- pin, clover and Lucerne for mentioning only some of them.
[00527] In one embodiment of the invention transgenic plants are selected from the group comprising cereals, soybean, rapeseed (including oil seed rape, especially canola and winter oil seed rape), cotton, sugarcane, sugar beet and potato, especially corn, soy, rapeseed (including oil seed rape, especially canola and winter oil seed rape), cotton, wheat and rice.
[00528] In another embodiment of the invention the transgenic plant is a gymnosperm plant, especially a spruce, pine or fir.
[00529] In one embodiment, the host plant is selected from the families Aceraceae, Ana- cardiaceae, Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Cactaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Euphor- biaceae, Fabaceae, Malvaceae, Nymphaeaceae, Papaveraceae, Rosaceae, Salicaceae, Solanaceae, Arecaceae, Bromeliaceae, Cyperaceae, Iridaceae, Liliaceae, Orchidaceae, Gentianaceae, Labiaceae, Magnoliaceae, Ranunculaceae, Carifolaceae, Rubiaceae, Scro- phulariaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Ericaceae, Polygonaceae, Violaceae, Juncaceae or Poaceae and preferably from a plant selected from the group of the families Apiaceae, As- teraceae, Brassicaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae, Papaveraceae, Rosaceae, Solanaceae, Liliaceae or Poaceae. Preferred are crop plants and in particular plants mentioned herein above as host plants such as the families and genera mentioned above for example preferred the species Anacardium occidentale, Calendula officinalis, Carthamus tinctorius, Cichorium intybus, Cynara scolymus, Helianthus annus, Tagetes lucida, Tagetes erecta, Tagetes tenuifolia; Daucus carota; Corylus avellana, Corylus colurna, Borago officinalis; Brassica napus, Brassica rapa ssp., Sinapis arvensis Brassica juncea, Brassica juncea var. juncea, Brassica juncea var. crispifolia, Brassica juncea var. foliosa, Brassica nigra, Brassica sinapioides, Melanosinapis communis, Brassica oleracea, Arabidopsis thaliana, Anana comosus, Ananas ananas, Bromelia comosa, Carica papaya, Cannabis sative, Ipomoea batatus, Ipomoea pandurata, Convolvulus batatas, Convolvulus tiliaceus, Ipomoea fas- tigiata, Ipomoea tiliacea, Ipomoea triloba, Convolvulus panduratus, Beta vulgaris, Beta vulgaris var. altissima, Beta vulgaris var. vulgaris, Beta maritima, Beta vulgaris var. perennis, Beta vulgaris var. conditiva, Beta vulgaris var. esculenta, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita moschata, Olea europaea, Manihot utilissima, Janipha manihot,, Jatropha manihot., Manihot aipil, Manihot dulcis, Manihot manihot, Manihot melanobasis, Manihot esculenta, Ricinus communis, Pisum sativum, Pisum arvense, Pisum humile, Medicago sativa, Medicago falcata, Medicago varia, Glycine max Dolichos soja, Glycine gracilis, Glycine hispida, Phaseolus max, Soja hispida, Soja max, Cocos nucifera, Pelargonium grossularioides, Oleum cocoas, Laurus nobilis, Persea americana, Arachis hypogaea, Linum usitatissimum, Linum humile, Linum austriacum, Linum bienne, Linum angustifolium, Linum catharticum, Linum flavum, Linum grandiflorum, Adenolinum grandiflo- rum, Linum lewisii, Linum narbonense, Linum perenne, Linum perenne var. lewisii, Linum pratense, Linum trigynum, Punica granatum, Gossypium hirsutum, Gossypium arboreum, Gossypium barbadense, Gossypium herbaceum, Gossypium thurberi, Musa nana, Musa acuminata, Musa paradisiaca, Musa spp., Elaeis guineensis, Papaver orientale, Papaver rhoeas, Papaver dubium, Sesamum indicum, Piper aduncum, Piper amalago, Piper angustifolium, Piper auritum, Piper betel, Piper cubeba, Piper longum, Piper nigrum, Piper ret- rofractum, Artanthe adunca, Artanthe elongata, Peperomia elongata, Piper elongatum, Steffensia elongata,, Hordeum vulgare, Hordeum jubatum, Hordeum murinum, Hordeum secalinum, Hordeum distichon Hordeum aegiceras, Hordeum hexastichon., Hordeum hexa- stichum, Hordeum irregulare, Hordeum sativum, Hordeum secalinum, Avena sativa, Avena fatua, Avena byzantina, Avena fatua var. sativa, Avena hybrida, Sorghum bicolor, Sorghum halepense, Sorghum saccharatum, Sorghum vulgare, Andropogon drummondii, Holcus bicolor, Holcus sorghum, Sorghum aethiopicum, Sorghum arundinaceum, Sorghum caf- frorum, Sorghum cernuum, Sorghum dochna, Sorghum drummondii, Sorghum durra, Sorghum guineense, Sorghum lanceolatum, Sorghum nervosum, Sorghum saccharatum, Sorghum subglabrescens, Sorghum verticilliflorum, Sorghum vulgare, Holcus halepensis, Sor- ghum miliaceum millet, Panicum militaceum, Zea mays, Triticum aestivum, Triticum durum, Triticum turgidum, Triticum hybernum, Triticum macha, Triticum sativum or Triticum vulgare, Cofea spp., Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora, Coffea liberica, Capsicum annuum, Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum, Capsicum frutescens, Capsicum annuum, Nicotiana ta- bacum, Solanum tuberosum, Solanum melongena, Lycopersicon esculentum, Lycopersicon lycopersicum., Lycopersicon pyriforme, Solanum integri folium, Solanum lycopersicum Theobroma cacao or Camellia sinensis.
[00530] Anacardiaceae such as the genera Pistacia, Mangifera, Anacardium e.g. the species Pistacia vera [pistachios, Pistazie], Mangifer indica [Mango] or Anacardium occidental [Cashew]; Asteraceae such as the genera Calendula, Carthamus, Centaurea, Cichorium, Cynara, Helianthus, Lactuca, Locusta, Tagetes, Valeriana e.g. the species Calendula officinalis [Marigold], Carthamus tinctorius [safflower], Centaurea cyanus [cornflower], Cichorium intybus [blue daisy], Cynara scolymus [Artichoke], Helianthus annus
[sunflower], Lactuca sativa, Lactuca crispa, Lactuca esculenta, Lactuca scariola L. ssp. sativa, Lactuca scariola L. var. integrata, Lactuca scariola L. var. integrifolia, Lactuca sativa subsp. romana, Locusta communis, Valeriana locusta [lettuce], Tagetes lucida, Tagetes erecta or Tagetes tenuifolia [Marigold]; Apiaceae such as the genera Daucus e.g. the species Daucus carota [carrot]; Betulaceae such as the genera Corylus e.g. the species Cory- lus avellana or Corylus colurna [hazelnut]; Boraginaceae such as the genera Borago e.g. the species Borago officinalis [borage]; Brassicaceae such as the genera Brassica,
Melanosinapis, Sinapis, Arabadopsis e.g. the species Brassica napus, Brassica rapa ssp. [canola, oilseed rape, turnip rape], Sinapis arvensis Brassica juncea, Brassica juncea var. juncea, Brassica juncea var. crispifolia, Brassica juncea var. foliosa, Brassica nigra, Brassica sinapioides, Melanosinapis communis [mustard], Brassica oleracea [fodder beet] or Arabidopsis thaliana; Bromeliaceae such as the genera Anana, Bromelia e.g. the species Anana comosus, Ananas ananas or Bromelia comosa [pineapple]; Caricaceae such as the genera Carica e.g. the species Carica papaya [papaya]; Cannabaceae such as the genera Cannabis e.g. the species Cannabis sative [hemp], Convolvulaceae such as the genera Ipomea, Convolvulus e.g. the species Ipomoea batatus, Ipomoea pandurata, Convolvulus batatas, Convolvulus tiliaceus, Ipomoea fastigiata, Ipomoea tiliacea, Ipomoea triloba or Convolvulus panduratus [sweet potato, Man of the Earth, wild potato], Chenopodiaceae such as the genera Beta, i.e. the species Beta vulgaris, Beta vulgaris var. altissima, Beta vulgaris var. Vulgaris, Beta maritima, Beta vulgaris var. perennis, Beta vulgaris var. condi- tiva or Beta vulgaris var. esculenta [sugar beet]; Cucurbitaceae such as the genera Cucu- bita e.g. the species Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita pepo or Cucurbita mo- schata [pumpkin, squash]; Elaeagnaceae such as the genera Elaeagnus e.g. the species Olea europaea [olive]; Ericaceae such as the genera Kalmia e.g. the species Kalmia latifo- lia, Kalmia angustifolia, Kalmia microphylla, Kalmia polifolia, Kalmia occidentalis, Cistus chamaerhodendros or Kalmia lucida [American laurel, broad-leafed laurel, calico bush, spoon wood, sheep laurel, alpine laurel, bog laurel, western bog-laurel, swamp-laurel]; Eu- phorbiaceae such as the genera Manihot, Janipha, Jatropha, Ricinus e.g. the species Manihot utilissima, Janipha manihot,, Jatropha manihot, Manihot aipil, Manihot dulcis, Manihot manihot, Manihot melanobasis, Manihot esculenta [manihot, arrowroot, tapioca, cassava] or Ricinus communis [castor bean, Castor Oil Bush, Castor Oil Plant, Palma
Christi, Wonder Tree]; Fabaceae such as the genera Pisum, Albizia, Cathormion, Feuillea, Inga, Pithecolobium, Acacia, Mimosa, Medicajo, Glycine, Dolichos, Phaseolus, Soja e.g. the species Pisum sativum, Pisum arvense, Pisum humile [pea], Albizia berteriana, Albizia julibrissin, Albizia lebbeck, Acacia berteriana, Acacia littoralis, Albizia berteriana, Albizzia berteriana, Cathormion berteriana, Feuillea berteriana, Inga fragrans, Pithecellobium berte- rianum, Pithecellobium fragrans, Pithecolobium berterianum, Pseudalbizzia berteriana, Acacia julibrissin, Acacia nemu, Albizia nemu, Feuilleea julibrissin, Mimosa julibrissin, Mimosa speciosa, Sericanrda julibrissin, Acacia lebbeck, Acacia macrophylla, Albizia lebbek, Feuilleea lebbeck, Mimosa lebbeck, Mimosa speciosa [bastard logwood, silk tree, East In- dian Walnut], Medicago sativa, Medicago falcata, Medicago varia [alfalfa] Glycine max Dolichos soja, Glycine gracilis, Glycine hispida, Phaseolus max, Soja hispida or Soja max [soybean]; Geraniaceae such as the genera Pelargonium, Cocos, Oleum e.g. the species Co- cos nucifera, Pelargonium grossularioides or Oleum cocois [coconut]; Gramineae such as the genera Saccharum e.g. the species Saccharum officinarum; J u gland aceae such as the genera Juglans, Wallia e.g. the species Juglans regia, Juglans ailanthifolia, Juglans sie- boldiana, Juglans cinerea, Wallia cinerea, Juglans bixbyi, Juglans californica, Juglans hind- sii, Juglans intermedia, Juglans jamaicensis, Juglans major, Juglans microcarpa, Juglans nigra or Wallia nigra [walnut, black walnut, common walnut, persian walnut, white walnut, butternut, black walnut]; Lauraceae such as the genera Persea, Laurus e.g. the species laurel Laurus nobilis [bay, laurel, bay laurel, sweet bay], Persea americana Persea ameri- cana, Persea gratissima or Persea persea [avocado]; Leguminosae such as the genera Arachis e.g. the species Arachis hypogaea [peanut]; Linaceae such as the genera Linum, Adenolinum e.g. the species Linum usitatissimum, Linum humile, Linum austriacum, Linum bienne, Linum angustifolium, Linum catharticum, Linum flavum, Linum grandiflorum, Adeno- linum grandiflorum, Linum lewisii, Linum narbonense, Linum perenne, Linum perenne var. lewisii, Linum pratense or Linum trigynum [flax, linseed]; Lythrarieae such as the genera Punica e.g. the species Punica granatum [pomegranate]; Malvaceae such as the genera Gossypium e.g. the species Gossypium hirsutum, Gossypium arboreum, Gossypium bar- badense, Gossypium herbaceum or Gossypium thurberi [cotton]; Musaceae such as the genera Musa e.g. the species Musa nana, Musa acuminata, Musa paradisiaca, Musa spp. [banana]; Onagraceae such as the genera Camissonia, Oenothera e.g. the species Oenothera biennis or Camissonia brevipes [primrose, evening primrose]; Palmae such as the genera Elacis e.g. the species Elaeis guineensis [oil plam]; Papaveraceae such as the genera Papaver e.g. the species Papaver orientale, Papaver rhoeas, Papaver dubium [poppy, oriental poppy, corn poppy, field poppy, shirley poppies, field poppy, long-headed poppy, long-pod poppy]; Pedaliaceae such as the genera Sesamum e.g. the species Sesamum indicum [sesame]; Piperaceae such as the genera Piper, Artanthe, Peperomia, Steffensia e.g. the species Piper aduncum, Piper amalago, Piper angustifolium, Piper auritum, Piper betel, Piper cubeba, Piper longum, Piper nigrum, Piper retrofractum, Artanthe adunca, Artanthe elongata, Peperomia elongata, Piper elongatum, Steffensia elongata. [Cayenne pepper, wild pepper]; Poaceae such as the genera Hordeum, Secale, Avena, Sorghum, Andropogon, Holcus, Panicum, Oryza, Zea, Triticum e.g. the species Hordeum vulgare, Hordeum jubatum, Hordeum murinum, Hordeum secalinum, Hordeum distichon Hordeum aegiceras, Hordeum hexastichon., Hordeum hexastichum, Hordeum irregulare, Hordeum sativum, Hordeum secalinum [barley, pearl barley, foxtail barley, wall barley, meadow barley], Secale cereale [rye], Avena sativa, Avena fatua, Avena byzantina, Avena fatua var. sativa, Avena hybrida [oat], Sorghum bicolor, Sorghum halepense, Sorghum saccharatum, Sorghum vulgare, Andropogon drummondii, Holcus bicolor, Holcus sorghum, Sorghum aethiopicum, Sorghum arundinaceum, Sorghum caffrorum, Sorghum cernuum, Sorghum dochna, Sorghum drummondii, Sorghum durra, Sorghum guineense, Sorghum lanceola- tum, Sorghum nervosum, Sorghum saccharatum, Sorghum subglabrescens, Sorghum ver- ticilliflorum, Sorghum vulgare, Holcus halepensis, Sorghum miliaceum millet, Panicum mili- taceum [Sorghum, millet], Oryza sativa, Oryza latifolia [rice], Zea mays [corn, maize] Triticum aestivum, Triticum durum, Triticum turgidum, Triticum hybernum, Triticum macha, Triticum sativum or Triticum vulgare [wheat, bread wheat, common wheat], Proteaceae such as the genera Macadamia e.g. the species Macadamia intergrifolia [macadamia]; Rubiaceae such as the genera Coffea e.g. the species Cofea spp., Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora or Coffea liberica [coffee]; Scrophulariaceae such as the genera Verbascum e.g. the species Verbascum blattaria, Verbascum chaixii, Verbascum densiflorum, Verbascum lagurus, Verbascum longifolium, Verbascum lychnitis, Verbascum nigrum, Verbascum olympicum, Verbascum phlomoides, Verbascum phoenicum, Verbascum pulverulentum or Verbascum thapsus [mullein, white moth mullein, nettle-leaved mullein, dense-flowered mullein, silver mullein, long-leaved mullein, white mullein, dark mullein, greek mullein, orange mullein, purple mullein, hoary mullein, great mullein]; Solanaceae such as the genera Capsicum, Nicotiana, Solanum, Lycopersicon e.g. the species Capsicum annuum, Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum, Capsicum frutescens [pepper], Capsicum annuum [paprika], Nicotiana tabacum, Nicotiana alata, Nicotiana attenuata, Nicotiana glauca, Nicotiana langsdorffii, Nicotiana obtusifolia, Nicotiana quadrivalvis, Nicotiana repanda, Nicotiana rustica, Nicotiana sylvestris [tobacco], Solanum tuberosum [potato], Solanum melongena [egg-plant] (Ly- copersicon esculentum, Lycopersicon lycopersicum., Lycopersicon pyri forme, Solanum in- tegrifolium or Solanum lycopersicum [tomato]; Sterculiaceae such as the genera Theo- broma e.g. the species Theobroma cacao [cacao]; Theaceae such as the genera Camellia e.g. the species Camellia sinensis) [tea].
[00531] The introduction of the nucleic acids according to the invention, the expression cassette or the vector into organisms, plants for example, can in principle be done by all of the methods known to those skilled in the art. The introduction of the nucleic acid sequences gives rise to recombinant or transgenic organisms.
[00532] The transfer of foreign genes into the genome of a plant is called transformation. In doing this the methods described for the transformation and regeneration of plants from plant tissues or plant cells are utilized for transient or stable transformation. Suitable meth- ods are protoplast transformation by poly(ethylene glycol)-induced DNA uptake, the holistic" method using the gene cannon - referred to as the particle bombardment method, elec- troporation, the incubation of dry embryos in DNA solution, microinjection and gene transfer mediated by Agrobacterium. Said methods are described by way of example in Jenes B. et al., Techniques for Gene Transfer, in: Transgenic Plants, Vol. 1 , Engineering and Utiliza- tion, eds.. Kung S.D and Wu R., Academic Press (1993) 128-143 and in Potrykus, Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Molec. Biol. 42, 205 (1991). The nucleic acids or the construct to be expressed is preferably cloned into a vector which is suitable for transforming Agrobacterium tumefaciens, for example pBin19 (Bevan et al., Nucl. Acids Res. 12, 8711 (1984)). Agrobacteria transformed by such a vector can then be used in known manner for the trans- formation of plants, in particular of crop plants such as by way of example tobacco plants, for example by bathing bruised leaves or chopped leaves in an agrobacterial solution and then culturing them in suitable media. The transformation of plants by means of Agrobacterium tumefaciens is described, for example, by Hofgen and Willmitzer in Nucl. Acid Res. 16, 9877 (1988) or is known inter alia from White F.F., Vectors for Gene Transfer in Higher Plants; in Transgenic Plants, Vol. 1 , Engineering and Utilization, eds. Kung S.D. and Wu R., Academic Press, 1993, pp. 15-38.
[00533] Agrobacteria transformed by an expression vector according to the invention may likewise be used in known manner for the transformation of plants such as test plants like Arabidopsis or crop plants such as cereal crops, corn, oats, rye, barley, wheat, soy- bean, rice, cotton, sugar beet, canola, sunflower, flax, hemp, potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes, carrots, paprika, oilseed rape, tapioca, cassava, arrowroot, tagetes, alfalfa, lettuce and the various tree, nut and vine species, in particular oil-containing crop plants such as soybean, peanut, castor oil plant, sunflower, corn, cotton, flax, oilseed rape, coconut, oil palm, saf- flower (Carthamus tinctorius) or cocoa bean, or in particular corn, wheat, soybean, rice, cot- ton and canola, e.g. by bathing bruised leaves or chopped leaves in an agrobacterial solution and then culturing them in suitable media.
[00534] The genetically modified plant cells may be regenerated by all of the methods known to those skilled in the art. Appropriate methods can be found in the publications re- ferred to above by Kung S.D. and Wu R., Potrykus or Hofgen and Willmitzer.
Accordingly, a further aspect of the invention relates to transgenic organisms transformed by at least one nucleic acid sequence, expression cassette or vector according to the invention as well as cells, cell cultures, tissue, parts - such as, for example, leaves, roots, etc. in the case of plant organisms - or reproductive material derived from such organisms.
[00535] In one embodiment of the invention host plants for the nucleic acid, expression cassette or vector according to the invention are selected from the group comprising corn, soy, oil seed rape (including canola and winter oil seed rape), cotton, wheat and rice.
[00536] A further embodiment of the invention relates to the use of a nucleic acid con- struct, e.g. an expression cassette, containing one or more DNA sequences encoding one or more polypeptides shown in table II or comprising one or more nucleic acid molecules as depicted in table I or encoding or DNA sequences hybridizing therewith for the transformation of plant cells, tissues or parts of plants.
[00537] In doing so, depending on the choice of promoter, the nucleic acid molecules or sequences shown in table I or II can be expressed specifically in the leaves, in the seeds, the nodules, in roots, in the stem or other parts of the plant. Those transgenic plants overproducing sequences, e.g. as depicted in table I, the reproductive material thereof, together with the plant cells, tissues or parts thereof are a further object of the present invention.
[00538] The expression cassette or the nucleic acid sequences or construct according to the invention containing nucleic acid molecules or sequences according to table I can, moreover, also be employed for the transformation of the organisms identified by way of example above such as bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi and plants.
[00539] Within the framework of the present invention, increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for ex- ample an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait relates to, for example, the artificially acquired trait of increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an in- creased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait, by comparison with the non-genetically modified initial plants e.g. the trait acquired by genetic modification of the target organism, and due to functional over-expression of one or more polypeptide (sequences) of table II, e.g. encoded by the corresponding nucleic acid molecules as depicted in table I, column 5 or 7, and/or homologs, in the organisms accord- ing to the invention, advantageously in the transgenic plant according to the invention or produced according to the method of the invention, at least for the duration of at least one plant generation.
[00540] A constitutive expression of the polypeptide sequences of table II, encoded by the corresponding nucleic acid molecule as depicted in table I, column 5 or 7 and/or ho- mologs is, moreover, advantageous. On the other hand, however, an inducible expression may also appear desirable. Expression of the polypeptide sequences of the invention can be either direct to the cytoplasm or the organelles, preferably the plastids of the host cells, preferably the plant cells. [00541] The efficiency of the expression of the sequences of the of table II, encoded by the corresponding nucleic acid molecule as depicted in table I, column 5 or 7 and/or ho- mologs can be determined, for example, in vitro by shoot meristem propagation. In addition, an expression of the sequences of table II, encoded by the corresponding nucleic acid molecule as depicted in table I, column 5 or 7 and/or homologs modified in nature and level and its effect on yield, e.g. on an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, but also on the metabolic pathways performance can be tested on test plants in greenhouse trials.
[00542] An additional object of the invention comprises transgenic organisms such as transgenic plants transformed by an expression cassette containing sequences of as depicted in table I, column 5 or 7 according to the invention or DNA sequences hybridizing therewith, as well as transgenic cells, tissue, parts and reproduction material of such plants. Particular preference is given in this case to transgenic crop plants such as by way of ex- ample barley, wheat, rye, oats, corn, soybean, rice, cotton, sugar beet, oilseed rape and canola, sunflower, flax, hemp, thistle, potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes, tapioca, cassava, arrowroot, alfalfa, lettuce and the various tree, nut and vine species.
[00543] In one embodiment of the invention transgenic plants transformed by an expression cassette containing or comprising nucleic acid molecules or sequences as depicted in table I, column 5 or 7, in particular of table MB, according to the invention or DNA sequences hybridizing therewith are selected from the group comprising corn, soy, oil seed rape (including canola and winter oil seed rape), cotton, wheat and rice.
[00544] For the purposes of the invention plants are mono- and dicotyledonous plants, mosses or algae, especially plants, for example in one embodiment monocotyledonous plants, or for example in another embodiment dicotyledonous plants. A further refinement according to the invention are transgenic plants as described above which contain a nucleic acid sequence or construct according to the invention or a expression cassette according to the invention.
[00545] However, transgenic also means that the nucleic acids according to the inven- tion are located at their natural position in the genome of an organism, but that the sequence, e.g. the coding sequence or a regulatory sequence, for example the promoter sequence, has been modified in comparison with the natural sequence. Preferably, transgenic/recombinant is to be understood as meaning the transcription of one or more nucleic acids or molecules of the invention and being shown in table I, occurs at a non-natural posi- tion in the genome. In one embodiment, the expression of the nucleic acids or molecules is homologous. In another embodiment, the expression of the nucleic acids or molecules is heterologous. This expression can be transiently or of a sequence integrated stably into the genome.
[00546] Advantageous inducible plant promoters are by way of example the PRP1 pro- moter (Ward et al., Plant.Mol. Biol. 22361 (1993)), a promoter inducible by benzenesul- fonamide (EP 388 186), a promoter inducible by tetracycline (Gatz et al., Plant J. 2, 397 (1992)), a promoter inducible by salicylic acid (WO 95/19443), a promoter inducible by ab- scisic acid (EP 335 528) and a promoter inducible by ethanol or cyclohexanone (WO 93/21334). Other examples of plant promoters which can advantageously be used are the promoter of cytoplasmic FBPase from potato, the ST-LSI promoter from potato (Stockhaus et al., EMBO J. 8, 2445 (1989)), the promoter of phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate amidotrans- ferase from Glycine max (see also gene bank accession number U87999) or a nodiene- specific promoter as described in EP 249 676.
[00547] Particular advantageous are those promoters which ensure expression upon onset of abiotic stress conditions. Advantageous are those promoters which ensure expression upon conditions of limited nutrient availability, e.g. the onset of limited nitrogen sources in case the nitrogen of the soil or nutrient is exhausted, e.g. for the expression of the nucleic acid molecules or their gene products as shown in table Villa.
[00548] Such promoters are known to the person skilled in the art or can be isolated from genes which are induced under the conditions mentioned above. In one embodiment, seed-specific promoters may be used for monocotylodonous or dicotylodonous plants.
[00549] In principle all natural promoters with their regulation sequences can be used like those named above for the expression cassette according to the invention and the method according to the invention. Over and above this, synthetic promoters may also advantageously be used. In the preparation of an expression cassette various DNA fragments can be manipulated in order to obtain a nucleotide sequence, which usefully reads in the correct direction and is equipped with a correct reading frame. To connect the DNA frag- ments (= nucleic acids according to the invention) to one another adaptors or linkers may be attached to the fragments. The promoter and the terminator regions can usefully be provided in the transcription direction with a linker or polylinker containing one or more restriction points for the insertion of this sequence. Generally, the linker has 1 to 10, mostly 1 to 8, preferably 2 to 6, restriction points. In general the size of the linker inside the regulatory re- gion is less than 100 bp, frequently less than 60 bp, but at least 5 bp. The promoter may be both native or homologous as well as foreign or heterologous to the host organism, for example to the host plant. In the 5'-3' transcription direction the expression cassette contains the promoter, a DNA sequence which shown in table I and a region for transcription termination. Different termination regions can be exchanged for one another in any desired fash- ion.
[00550] A nucleic acid molecule of the present invention, e.g., a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which confers increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. an enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or increased nutrient use efficiency and/or enhanced cycling drought tolerance in plants, can be isolated using stan- dard molecular biological techniques and the sequence information provided herein. For example, an A. thaliana polypeptide encoding cDNA can be isolated from a A. thaliana c- DNA library or a Synechocystis sp., Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Oryza sa- tiva polpypeptide encoding cDNA can be isolated from a Synechocystis sp., Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Oryza sativa c-DNA library respectively using all or por- tion of one of the sequences shown in table I. Moreover, a nucleic acid molecule encompassing all or a portion of one of the sequences of table I can be isolated by the polymerase chain reaction using oligonucleotide primers designed based upon this sequence. For example, mRNA can be isolated from plant cells (e.g., by the guanidinium-thiocyanate extrac- tion procedure of Chirgwin et al., Biochemistry 18, 5294 (1979)) and cDNA can be prepared using reverse transcriptase (e.g., Moloney MLV reverse transcriptase, available from
Gibco/BRL, Bethesda, MD; or AMV reverse transcriptase, available from Seikagaku America, Inc., St. Petersburg, FL). Synthetic oligonucleotide primers for polymerase chain reac- tion amplification can be designed based upon one of the nucleotide sequences shown in table I. A nucleic acid molecule of the invention can be amplified using cDNA or, alternatively, genomic DNA, as a template and appropriate oligonucleotide primers according to standard PCR amplification techniques. The nucleic acid molecule so amplified can be cloned into an appropriate vector and characterized by DNA sequence analysis. Further- more, the genes employed in the present invention can be prepared by standard synthetic techniques, e.g., using a commercially available automated DNA synthesizer.
[00551] In a embodiment, an isolated nucleic acid molecule of the invention comprises one of the nucleotide sequences or molecules as shown in table I. Moreover, the nucleic acid molecule of the invention can comprise only a portion of the coding region of one of the sequences or molecules of a nucleic acid of table I, for example, a fragment which can be used as a probe or primer or a fragment encoding a biologically active portion of a polypep- tide-according to invention.
[00552] Portions of proteins encoded by the polypeptide according to the invention or a polypeptide encoding nucleic acid molecules of the invention are preferably biologically ac- tive portions described herein. As used herein, the term "biologically active portion of a polypeptide is intended to include a portion, e.g. a domain/motif, of increased yield, e.g. increased or enhanced an yield related trait, e.g. increased the low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related protein that participates in an enhanced nutrient use efficiency e.g. nitrogen use efficency efficiency, and/or increased intrinsic yield in a plant. To determine whether a polypeptide according to the invention, or a biologically active portion thereof, results in an increased yield, e.g. increased or enhanced an yield related trait, e.g. increased the low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related protein that participates in an enhanced nutrient use efficiency, e.g. nitrogen use efficency efficiency and/or increased intrinsic yield in a plant, an analysis of a plant comprising the polypeptidemay be performed. Such analysis methods are well known to those skilled in the art, as detailed in the Examples. More specifically, nucleic acid fragments encoding biologically active portions of a polypeptide can be prepared by isolating a portion of one of the sequences of the nucleic acid molecules listed in table I expressing the encoded portion of the polypeptide or peptide thereof (e.g., by recombinant expression in vitro) and assessing the activity of the encoded portion.
[00553] Biologically active portions of the polypeptide according to the inventionare encompassed by the present invention and include peptides comprising amino acid sequences derived from the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoding gene, or the amino acid sequence of a protein homologous to the polypeptide according to the invention, which include fewer amino acids than a full length polypeptide according to the invention or the full length protein which is homologous to the polypeptide according to the invention, and exhibits at least some enzymatic or biological activity of the polypeptide according to the invention. Typically, biologically active portions (e.g., peptides which are, for example, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 50, 100 or more amino acids in length) comprise a domain or motif with at least one activity of the polypeptide according to the invention.
Moreover, other biologically active portions in which other regions of the protein are deleted, can be prepared by recombinant techniques and evaluated for one or more of the activities described herein. Preferably, the biologically active portions of the polypeptide according to the invention include one or more selected domains/motifs or portions thereof having biological activity.
[00554] The term "biological active portion" or "biological activity" means a polypeptide as depicted in table II, column 3 or a portion of said polypeptide which still has at least 10 % or 20 %, preferably 30 %, 40 %, 50 % or 60 %, especially preferably 70 %, 75 %, 80 %, 90 % or 95 % of the enzymatic or biological activity of the natural or starting enzyme or protein.
[00555] In the process according to the invention nucleic acid sequences or molecules can be used, which, if appropriate, contain synthetic, non-natural or modified nucleotide bases, which can be incorporated into DNA or RNA. Said synthetic, non-natural or modified bases can for example increase the stability of the nucleic acid molecule outside or inside a cell. The nucleic acid molecules of the invention can contain the same modifications as aforementioned.
[00556] As used in the present context the term "nucleic acid molecule" may also encompass the untranslated sequence or molecule located at the 3' and at the 5' end of the coding gene region, for example at least 500, preferably 200, especially preferably 100, nucleotides of the sequence upstream of the 5' end of the coding region and at least 100, preferably 50, especially preferably 20, nucleotides of the sequence downstream of the 3' end of the coding gene region. It is often advantageous only to choose the coding region for cloning and expression purposes.
[00557] Preferably, the nucleic acid molecule used in the process according to the invention or the nucleic acid molecule of the invention is an isolated nucleic acid molecule. In one embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule of the invention is the nucleic acid molecule used in the process of the invention.
[00558] In various embodiments, the isolated nucleic acid molecule used in the process according to the invention may, for example comprise less than approximately 5 kb, 4 kb, 3 kb, 2 kb, 1 kb, 0.5 kb or 0.1 kb nucleotide sequences which naturally flank the nucleic acid molecule in the genomic DNA of the cell from which the nucleic acid molecule originates.
[00559] The nucleic acid molecules used in the process, for example the polynucleotide of the invention or of a part thereof can be isolated using molecular-biological standard techniques and the sequence information provided herein. Also, for example a homologous sequence or homologous, conserved sequence regions at the DNA or amino acid level can be identified with the aid of comparison algorithms. The former can be used as hybridization probes under standard hybridization techniques (for example those described in Sambrook et al., supra) for isolating further nucleic acid sequences useful in this process.
[00560] A nucleic acid molecule encompassing a complete sequence of the nucleic acid molecules used in the process, for example the polynucleotide of the invention, or a part thereof may additionally be isolated by polymerase chain reaction, oligonucleotide primers based on this sequence or on parts thereof being used. For example, a nucleic acid mole- cule comprising the complete sequence or part thereof can be isolated by polymerase chain reaction using oligonucleotide primers which have been generated on the basis of this very sequence. For example, mRNA can be isolated from cells (for example by means of the guanidinium thiocyanate extraction method of Chirgwin et al., Biochemistry 18, 5294(1979)) and cDNA can be generated by means of reverse transcriptase (for example Moloney, MLV reverse transcriptase, available from Gibco/BRL, Bethesda, MD, or AMV reverse transcriptase, obtainable from Seikagaku America, Inc., St. Petersburg, FL).
[00561] Synthetic oligonucleotide primers for the amplification by means of polymerase chain reaction can be generated on the basis of a sequence shown herein, using known methods.
[00562] Moreover, it is possible to identify a conserved protein by carrying out protein sequence alignments with the polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecules of the present invention, in particular with the sequences encoded by the nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I, from which conserved regions, and in turn, degenerate primers can be derived. Conserved regions are those, which show a very little variation in the amino acid in one particular position of several homologs from different origin. The consensus sequence and polypeptide motifs shown in column 7 of table IV, are derived from said alignments. Moreover, it is possible to identify conserved regions from various organisms by carrying out protein sequence alignments with the polypeptide encoded by the nu- cleic acid of the present invention, in particular with the sequences encoded by the polypeptide molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table II, from which conserved regions, and in turn, degenerate primers can be derived.
[00563] In one advantageous embodiment, in the method of the present invention the activity of a polypeptide comprising or consisting of a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif shown in table IV, column 7 is increased and in one another embodiment, the present invention relates to a polypeptide comprising or consisting of a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif shown in table IV, column 7 whereby less than 20, preferably less than 15 or 10, preferably less than 9, 8, 7, or 6, more preferred less than 5 or 4, even more preferred less then 3, even more preferred less then 2, even more preferred 0 of the amino acids positions indicated can be replaced by any amino acid. In one embodiment not more than 15%, preferably 10%, even more preferred 5%, 4%, 3%, or 2%, most preferred 1 % or 0% of the amino acid position indicated by a letter are/is replaced another amino acid. In one embodiment less than 20, preferably less than 15 or 10, preferably less than 9, 8, 7, or 6, more preferred less than 5 or 4, even more preferred less than 3, even more preferred less than 2, even more preferred 0 amino acids are inserted into a consensus sequence or protein motif.
[00564] The consensus sequence was derived from a multiple alignment of the sequences as listed in table II. The letters represent the one letter amino acid code and indicate that the amino acids are conserved in at least 80% of the aligned proteins, whereas the letter X stands for amino acids, which are not conserved in at least 80% of the aligned sequences. The consensus sequence starts with the first conserved amino acid in the alignment, and ends with the last conserved amino acid in the alignment of the investigated sequences. The number of given X indicates the distances between conserved amino acid residues, e.g. Y-x(21 ,23)-F means that conserved tyrosine and phenylalanine residues in the alignment are separated from each other by minimum 21 and maximum 23 amino acid residues in the alignment of all investigated sequences.
[00565] Conserved domains were identified from all sequences and are described using a subset of the standard Prosite notation, e.g. the pattern Y-x(21 ,23)-[FW] means that a conserved tyrosine is separated by minimum 21 and maximum 23 amino acid residues from either a phenylalanine or tryptophane. Patterns had to match at least 80% of the investigated proteins. Conserved patterns were identified with the software tool MEME version 3.5.1 or manually. MEME is described by Timothy L. Bailey and Charles Elkan (Proceed- ings of the Second International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, pp. 28-36, AAAI Press, Menlo Park, California, 1994). The source code for the stand-alone program is publicly available from the San Diego Supercomputer centre. For identifying common motifs in all sequences with the software tool MEME, the following settings were used: -maxsize 500000, -nmotifs 15, -evt 0.001 , -maxw 60, -distance 1 e-3, -minsites num- ber of sequences used for the analysis. Input sequences for MEME were non-aligned sequences in Fasta format. Other parameters were used in the default settings in this software version. Prosite patterns for conserved domains were generated with the software tool Pratt version 2.1 or manually. Pratt was developed by Inge Jonassen, Dept. of Informatics, University of Bergen, Norway and is described by Jonassen et al. (I. Jonassen, J.F.Collins and D.G.Higgins, Protein Science 4 (1995), pp. 1587-1595; I. Jonassen, Efficient discovery of conserved patterns using a pattern graph, Submitted to CABIOS Febr. 1997]. The source code (ANSI C) for the stand-alone program is public available, e.g. at establisched Bioin- formatic centers like EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute). For generating patterns with the software tool Pratt, following settings were used: PL (max Pattern Length): 100, PN (max Nr of Pattern Symbols): 100, PX (max Nr of consecutive x's): 30, FN (max Nr of flexible spacers): 5, FL (max Flexibility): 30, FP (max Flex. Product): 10, ON (max number patterns): 50. Input sequences for Pratt were distinct regions of the protein sequences exhibiting high similarity as identified from software tool MEME. The minimum number of sequences, which have to match the generated patterns (CM, min Nr of Seqs to Match) was set to at least 80% of the provided sequences. Parameters not mentioned here were used in their default settings. The Prosite patterns of the conserved domains can be used to search for protein sequences matching this pattern. Various established Bioinformatic centres provide public internet portals for using those patterns in database searches (e.g. PIR (Protein Information Resource, located at Georgetown University Medical Center) or Ex- PASy (Expert Protein Analysis System)). Alternatively, stand-alone software is available, like the program Fuzzpro, which is part of the EMBOSS software package. For example, the program Fuzzpro not only allows to search for an exact pattern-protein match but also allows to set various ambiguities in the performed search.
[00566] The alignment was performed with the software ClustalW (version 1.83) and is described by Thompson et al. (Nucleic Acids Research 22, 4673 (1994)). The source code for the stand-alone program ispublicly available from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Heidelberg, Germany. The analysis was performed using the default parameters of ClustalW v1.83 (gap open penalty: 10.0; gap extension penalty: 0.2; protein matrix: Gonnet; protein/DNA endgap: -1 ; protein/DNA gapdist: 4).
[00567] For identification of protein domains as defined in the Pfam Protein Families Database, protein sequences were searched using the hmmscan algorithm, hmmscan is part of the HMMER3 software package that is public available from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus (http://hmmer.org/). Search for Pfam domains was done using realease 24.0 (released October 2009) of the Pfam Protein Families Database (http://pfam.sanger.ac.uk/). Parameters for hmmscan algorithm were the default parameters inplemented in hmmscan (HMMER release 3.0). Domains reported by the hmmscan algorithm were taken into account if the independent E-value was 0.1 or better and if at least 90% of the PFAM domain model length was covered by the alignment.
[00568] Degenerate primers can then be utilized by PCR for the amplification of fragments of novel proteins having above-mentioned activity, e.g. conferring increased yield, e.g. the increased yield-related trait, in particular, the enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, e.g. low temperature tolerance, cycling drought tolerance, water use effi- ciency, nutrient (e.g. nitrogen) use efficiency and/or increased intrinsic yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof after increasing the expression or activity or having the activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3 or further functional homologs of the polypeptide of the invention from other organisms.
[00569] These fragments can then be utilized as hybridization probe for isolating the complete gene sequence. As an alternative, the missing 5' and 3' sequences can be isolated by means of RACE-PCR. A nucleic acid molecule according to the invention can be amplified using cDNA or, as an alternative, genomic DNA as template and suitable oligonucleotide primers, following standard PCR amplification techniques. The nucleic acid mole- cule amplified thus can be cloned into a suitable vector and characterized by means of DNA sequence analysis. Oligonucleotides, which correspond to one of the nucleic acid molecules used in the process can be generated by standard synthesis methods, for example using an automatic DNA synthesizer.
[00570] Nucleic acid molecules which are advantageously for the process according to the invention can be isolated based on their homology to the nucleic acid molecules disclosed herein using the sequences or part thereof as or for the generation of a hybridization probe and following standard hybridization techniques under stringent hybridization conditions. In this context, it is possible to use, for example, isolated one or more nucleic acid molecules of at least 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60 or more nucleotides, preferably of at least 15, 20 or 25 nucleotides in length which hybridize under stringent conditions with the above-described nucleic acid molecules, in particular with those which encompass a nucleotide sequence of the nucleic acid molecule used in the process of the invention or encoding a protein used in the invention or of the nucleic acid molecule of the invention. Nucleic acid molecules with 30, 50, 100, 250 or more nucleotides may also be used.
[00571] By "hybridizing" it is meant that such nucleic acid molecules hybridize under conventional hybridization conditions, preferably under stringent conditions such as described by, e.g., Sambrook (Molecular Cloning; A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Edition, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY (1989)) or in Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. (1989), 6.3.1 -6.3.6.
[00572] According to the invention, DNA as well as RNA molecules of the nucleic acid of the invention can be used as probes. Further, as template for the identification of functional homologues Northern blot assays as well as Southern blot assays can be performed. The Northern blot assay advantageously provides further information about the expressed gene product: e.g. expression pattern, occurrence of processing steps, like splicing and capping, etc. The Southern blot assay provides additional information about the chromosomal localization and organization of the gene encoding the nucleic acid molecule of the invention.
[00573] A preferred, non-limiting example of stringent hybridization conditions are hy- bridizations in 6 x sodium chloride/sodium citrate (= SSC) at approximately 45°C, followed by one or more wash steps in 0.2 x SSC, 0.1 % SDS at 50 to 65°C, for example at 50°C, 55°C or 60°C. The skilled worker knows that these hybridization conditions differ as a function of the type of the nucleic acid and, for example when organic solvents are present, with regard to the temperature and concentration of the buffer. The temperature under "standard hybridization conditions" differs for example as a function of the type of the nucleic acid between 42°C and 58°C, preferably between 45°C and 50°C in an aqueous buffer with a concentration of 0.1 x, 0.5 x, 1 x, 2 x, 3 x, 4 x or 5 x SSC (pH 7.2). If organic solvent(s) is/are present in the abovementioned buffer, for example 50% formamide, the temperature under standard conditions is approximately 40°C, 42°C or 45°C. The hybridization conditions for DNA:DNA hybrids are preferably for example 0.1 x SSC and 20°C, 25°C, 30°C, 35°C, 40°C or 45°C, preferably between 30°C and 45°C. The hybridization conditions for DNA: RNA hybrids are preferably for example 0.1 x SSC and 30°C, 35°C, 40°C, 45°C, 50°C or 55°C, preferably between 45°C and 55°C. The abovementioned hybridization temperatures are determined for example for a nucleic acid approximately 100 bp (= base pairs) in length and a G + C content of 50% in the absence of formamide. The skilled worker knows to determine the hybridization conditions required with the aid of textbooks, for example the ones mentioned above, or from the following textbooks: Sambrook et al., "Molecular Cloning", Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1989; Hames and Higgins (Ed.) 1985, "Nucleic Acids Hybridization: A Practical Approach", IRL Press at Oxford University Press, Oxford; Brown (Ed.) 1991 , "Essential Molecular Biology: A Practical Approach", IRL Press at Oxford University Press, Oxford.
[00574] A further example of one such stringent hybridization condition is hybridization at 4 x SSC at 65°C, followed by a washing in 0.1 x SSC at 65°C for one hour. Alternatively, an exemplary stringent hybridization condition is in 50 % formamide, 4 x SSC at 42°C. Further, the conditions during the wash step can be selected from the range of conditions delimited by low-stringency conditions (approximately 2 x SSC at 50°C) and high-stringency conditions (approximately 0.2 x SSC at 50°C, preferably at 65°C) (20 x SSC : 0.3 M sodium citrate, 3 M NaCI, pH 7.0). In addition, the temperature during the wash step can be raised from low-stringency conditions at room temperature, approximately 22°C, to higher- stringency conditions at approximately 65°C. Both of the parameters salt concentration and temperature can be varied simultaneously, or else one of the two parameters can be kept constant while only the other is varied. Denaturants, for example formamide or SDS, may also be employed during the hybridization. In the presence of 50% formamide, hybridization is preferably effected at 42°C. Relevant factors like 1 ) length of treatment, 2) salt conditions, 3) detergent conditions, 4) competitor DNAs, 5) temperature and 6) probe selection can be combined case by case so that not all possibilities can be mentioned herein.
[00575] Thus, in a preferred embodiment, Northern blots are prehybridized with Rothi- Hybri-Quick buffer (Roth, Karlsruhe) at 68°C for 2h. Hybridization with radioactive labelled probe is done overnight at 68°C. Subsequent washing steps are performed at 68°C with 1 x SSC. For Southern blot assays the membrane is prehybridized with Rothi-Hybri-Quick buffer (Roth, Karlsruhe) at 68°C for 2h. The hybridzation with radioactive labelled probe is conducted over night at 68°C. Subsequently the hybridization buffer is discarded and the filter shortly washed using 2 x SSC; 0,1 % SDS. After discarding the washing buffer new 2 x SSC; 0,1 % SDS buffer is added and incubated at 68°C for 15 minutes. This washing step is performed twice followed by an additional washing step using 1 x SSC; 0,1 % SDS at 68°C for 10 min.
[00576] Some examples of conditions for DNA hybridization (Southern blot assays) and wash step are shown herein below:
[00577] (1 ) Hybridization conditions can be selected, for example, from the following conditions
[00578] (a) 4 x SSC at 65°C,
[00579] (b) 6 x SSC at 45°C,
[00580] (c) 6 x SSC, 100 mg/ml denatured fragmented fish sperm DNA at 68°C,
[00581] (d) 6 x SSC, 0.5% SDS, 100 mg/ml denatured salmon sperm DNA at 68°C,
[00582] (e) 6 x SSC, 0.5% SDS, 100 mg/ml denatured fragmented salmon sperm
DNA, 50% formamide at 42°C,
[00583] (f) 50% formamide, 4 x SSC at 42°C,
[00584] (g) 50% (v/v) formamide, 0.1 % bovine serum albumin, 0.1 % Ficoll, 0.1 % polyvinylpyrrolidone, 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer pH 6.5, 750 mM NaCI, 75 mM sodium citrate at 42°C,
[00585] (h) 2 x or 4 x SSC at 50°C (low-stringency condition), or
[00586] (i) 30 to 40% formamide, 2 x or 4 x SSC at 42°C (low-stringency condition).
[00587] (2) Wash steps can be selected, for example, from the following conditions:
[00588] (a) 0.015 M NaCI/0.0015 M sodium citrate/0.1 % SDS at 50°C.
[00589] (b) 0.1 x SSC at 65°C.
[00590] (c) 0.1 x SSC, 0.5 % SDS at 68°C.
[00591] (d) 0.1 x SSC, 0.5% SDS, 50% formamide at 42°C.
[00592] (e) 0.2 x SSC, 0.1 % SDS at 42°C.
[00593] (f) 2 x SSC at 65°C (low-stringency condition).
[00594] Polypeptides having above-mentioned activity, i.e. conferring increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait as mentioned herein, e.g. increased abiotic stress tolerance, e.g. low temperature tolerance, e.g. with increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or water use efficiency and/or increased intrinsic yield as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof, derived from other organisms, can be encoded by other DNA sequences which hybridize to the sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7 under relaxed hybridization conditions and which code on expression for pep- tides conferring the increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait as mentioned herein, e.g. increased abiotic stress tolerance, e.g. low temperature tolerance or enhanced cold tolerance, e.g. with increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or water use efficiency and/or increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof.
[00595] Further, some applications have to be performed at low stringency hybridization conditions, without any consequences for the specificity of the hybridization. For example, a Southern blot analysis of total DNA could be probed with a nucleic acid molecule of the present invention and washed at low stringency (55°C in 2 x SSPE, 0,1 % SDS). The hybridiza- tion analysis could reveal a simple pattern of only genes encoding polypeptides of the present invention or used in the process of the invention, e.g. having the herein-mentioned activity of enhancing the increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait as mentioned herein, e.g. increased abiotic stress tolerance, e.g. increased low temperature tolerance or enhanced cold tolerance, e.g. with increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or water use effi- ciency and/or increased intrinsic yield, as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof. A further example of such low- stringent hybridization conditions is 4 x SSC at 50°C or hybridization with 30 to 40% forma- mide at 42°C. Such molecules comprise those which are fragments, analogues or derivatives of the polypeptide of the invention or used in the process of the invention and differ, for example, by way of amino acid and/or nucleotide deletion(s), insertion(s), substitution (s), addition(s) and/or recombination (s) or any other modification(s) known in the art either alone or in combination from the above-described amino acid sequences or their underlying nucleotide sequence(s). However, it is preferred to use high stringency hybridization conditions.
[00596] Hybridization should advantageously be carried out with fragments of at least 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 or 40 bp, advantageously at least 50, 60, 70 or 80 bp, preferably at least 90, 100 or 1 10 bp. Most preferably are fragments of at least 15, 20, 25 or 30 bp. Preferably are also hybridizations with at least 100 bp or 200, very especially preferably at least 400 bp in length. In an especially preferred embodiment, the hybridization should be carried out with the entire nucleic acid sequence with conditions described above.
[00597] The terms "fragment", "fragment of a sequence" or "part of a sequence" mean a truncated sequence of the original sequence referred to. The truncated sequence (nucleic acid or protein sequence) can vary widely in length; the minimum size being a sequence of sufficient size to provide a sequence with at least a comparable function and/or activity of the original sequence or molecule referred to or hybridizing with the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or used in the process of the invention under stringent conditions, while the maximum size is not critical. In some applications, the maximum size usually is not substantially greater than that required to provide the desired activity and/or function(s) of the original sequence.
[00598] Typically, the truncated amino acid sequence or molecule will range from about 5 to about 310 amino acids in length. More typically, however, the sequence will be a maximum of about 250 amino acids in length, preferably a maximum of about 200 or 100 amino acids. It is usually desirable to select sequences of at least about 10, 12 or 15 amino acids, up to a maximum of about 20 or 25 amino acids.
[00599] The term "epitope" relates to specific immunoreactive sites within an antigen, also known as antigenic determinates. These epitopes can be a linear array of monomers in a polymeric composition - such as amino acids in a protein - or consist of or comprise a more complex secondary or tertiary structure. Those of skill will recognize that immunogens (i.e., substances capable of eliciting an immune response) are antigens; however, some antigen, such as haptens, are not immunogens but may be made immunogenic by coupling to a carrier molecule. The term "antigen" includes references to a substance to which an antibody can be generated and/or to which the antibody is specifically immunoreactive.
[00600] In one embodiment the present invention relates to a epitope of the polypeptide of the present invention or used in the process of the present invention and confers an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait as mentioned herein, e.g. increased abiotic stress tolerance, e.g. low temperature tolerance or enhanced cold tolerance, e.g. with increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or water use efficiency and/or increased intrinsic yield etc., as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof.
[00601] The term "one or several amino acids" relates to at least one amino acid but not more than that number of amino acids, which would result in a homology of below 50% identity. Preferably, the identity is more than 70% or 80%, more preferred are 85%, 90%, 91 %, 92%, 93%, 94% or 95%, even more preferred are 96%, 97%, 98%, or 99% identity.
[00602] Further, the nucleic acid molecule of the invention comprises a nucleic acid molecule, which is a complement of one of the nucleotide sequences of above mentioned nucleic acid molecules or a portion thereof. A nucleic acid molecule or its sequence which is complementary to one of the nucleotide molecules or sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7 is one which is sufficiently complementary to one of the nucleotide molecules or sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7 such that it can hybridize to one of the nucleotide sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, thereby forming a stable duplex. Preferably, the hybridization is performed under stringent hybrization conditions. However, a complement of one of the herein disclosed sequences is preferably a sequence comple- ment thereto according to the base pairing of nucleic acid molecules well known to the skilled person. For example, the bases A and G undergo base pairing with the bases T and U or C, resp. and visa versa. Modifications of the bases can influence the base-pairing partner.
[00603] The nucleic acid molecule of the invention comprises a nucleotide sequence which is at least about 30%, 35%, 40% or 45%, preferably at least about 50%, 55%, 60% or 65%, more preferably at least about 70%, 80%, or 90%, and even more preferably at least about 95%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more homologous to a nucleotide sequence shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, or a portion thereof and preferably has above mentioned activity, in particular having a increasing-yield activity, e.g. increasing an yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increased intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait after increasing the activity or an activity of a gene as shown in table I or of a gene product, e.g. as shown in table II, column 3, by for example expression either in the cytosol or cytoplasm or in an organelle such as a plastid or mitochondria or both, preferably in plastids.
[00604] In one embodiment, the nucleic acid molecules marked in table I, column 6 with "plastidic" or gene products encoded by said nucleic acid molecules are expressed in com- bination with a targeting signal as described herein.
[00605] The nucleic acid molecule of the invention comprises a nucleotide sequence or molecule which hybridizes, preferably hybridizes under stringent conditions as defined herein, to one of the nucleotide sequences or molecule shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, or a portion thereof and encodes a protein having above-mentioned activity, e.g. conferring an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, increased intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof by for example expression either in the cytosol or in an organelle such as a plastid or mitochondria or both, preferably in plastids, and optionally, the activity selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate- dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199.R01.1 -protein, 60952769.R01.1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein,
CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin- related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate- zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isom- erase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein.
[00606] Moreover, the nucleic acid molecule of the invention can comprise only a portion of the coding region of one of the sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, for example a fragment which can be used as a probe or primer or a fragment encoding a biologically active portion of the polypeptide of the present invention or of a polypeptide used in the process of the present invention, i.e. having above-mentioned activity, e.g. conferring an increased yield, e.g. with an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, increased intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof f its activity is increased by for exam- pie expression either in the cytosol or in an organelle such as a plastid or mitochondria or both, preferably in plastids. The nucleotide sequences determined from the cloning of the present protein-according-to-the-invention-encoding gene allows for the generation of probes and primers designed for use in identifying and/or cloning its homologues in other cell types and organisms. The probe/primer typically comprises substantially purified oligonucleotide. The oligonucleotide typically comprises a region of nucleotide sequence that hybridizes under stringent conditions to at least about 12, 15 preferably about 20 or 25, more preferably about 40, 50 or 75 consecutive nucleotides of a sense strand of one of the sequences set forth, e.g., in table I, columns 5 and 7, an anti-sense sequence of one of the sequences, e.g., set forth in table I, columns 5 and 7, or naturally occurring mutants thereof. Primers based on a nucleotide of invention can be used in PCR reactions to clone homologues of the polypeptide of the invention or of the polypeptide used in the process of the invention, e.g. as the primers described in the examples of the present invention, e.g. as shown in the examples. A PCR with the primers shown in table III, column 7 will result in a fragment of the gene product as shown in table II, column 3.
[00607] Primer sets are interchangeable. The person skilled in the art knows to combine said primers to result in the desired product, e.g. in a full length clone or a partial sequence. Probes based on the sequences of the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or used in the process of the present invention can be used to detect transcripts or genomic sequences encoding the same or homologous proteins. The probe can further comprise a label group attached thereto, e.g. the label group can be a radioisotope, a fluorescent compound, an enzyme, or an enzyme co-factor. Such probes can be used as a part of a genomic marker test kit for identifying cells which express an polypeptide of the invention or used in the process of the present invention, such as by measuring a level of an encoding nucleic acid molecule in a sample of cells, e.g., detecting mRNA levels or determining, whether a genomic gene comprising the sequence of the polynucleotide of the invention or used in the processes of the present invention has been mutated or deleted.
[00608] The nucleic acid molecule of the invention encodes a polypeptide or portion thereof which includes an amino acid sequence which is sufficiently homologous to the amino acid sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 such that the protein or portion thereof maintains the ability to participate in increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof, in particular increasing the activity as mentioned above or as described in the examples in plants is comprised.
[00609] As used herein, the language "sufficiently homologous" refers to proteins or portions thereof which have amino acid sequences which include a minimum number of identi- cal or equivalent amino acid residues (e.g., an amino acid residue which has a similar side chain as an amino acid residue in one of the sequences of the polypeptide of the present invention) to an amino acid sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 such that the protein or portion thereof is able to participate in increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof. For exam- pies having the activity of a protein as shown in table II, column 3 and as described herein.
[00610] In one embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention comprises a nucleic acid that encodes a portion of the protein of the present invention. The protein is at least about 30%, 35%, 40%, 45% or 50%, preferably at least about 55%, 60%, 65% or 70%, and more preferably at least about 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 91 %, 92%, 93% or 94% and most preferably at least about 95%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more homologous to an entire amino acid sequence of table II, columns 5 and 7 and having above-mentioned activity, e.g. conferring an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof by for example expression either in the cytosol or in an organelle such as a plastid or mitochondria or both, preferably in plas- tids.
[00611] Portions of proteins encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of the invention are preferably biologically active, preferably having above-mentioned annotated activity, e.g. conferring an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non- transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof after increase of activity.
[00612] As mentioned herein, the term "biologically active portion" is intended to include a portion, e.g., a domain/motif, that confers an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield- related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutri- ent use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof or has an immunological activity such that it is binds to an antibody binding specifically to the polypeptide of the present invention or a polypeptide used in the process of the present invention for increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related traitas compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof.
[00613] The invention further relates to nucleic acid molecules that differ from one of the nucleotide sequences shown in table I A, columns 5 and 7 (and portions thereof) due to degeneracy of the genetic code and thus encode a polypeptide of the present invention, in particular a polypeptide having above mentioned activity, e.g. as that polypeptides depicted by the sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 or the functional homologues. Advanta- geously, the nucleic acid molecule of the invention comprises, or in an other embodiment has, a nucleotide sequence encoding a protein comprising, or in an other embodiment having, an amino acid sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 or the functional homo- logues. In a still further embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule of the invention encodes a full length protein which is substantially homologous to an amino acid sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 or the functional homologues. However, in one embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention does not consist of the sequence shown in table I, preferably table IA, columns 5 and 7.
[00614] In addition, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that DNA sequence polymorphisms that lead to changes in the amino acid sequences may exist within a population. Such genetic polymorphism in the gene encoding the polypeptide of the invention or comprising the nucleic acid molecule of the invention may exist among individuals within a population due to natural variation.
[00615] Nucleic acid molecules corresponding to natural variants homologues of a nu- cleic acid molecule of the invention, which can also be a cDNA, can be isolated based on their homology to the nucleic acid molecules disclosed herein using the nucleic acid molecule of the invention, or a portion thereof, as a hybridization probe according to standard hybridization techniques under stringent hybridization conditions.
[00616] Accordingly, in another embodiment, a nucleic acid molecule of the invention is at least 15, 20, 25 or 30 nucleotides in length. Preferably, it hybridizes under stringent conditions to a nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleotide sequence of the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention or used in the process of the present invention, e.g. comprising the sequence shown in table I, columns 5 and 7. The nucleic acid molecule is preferably at least 20, 30, 50, 100, 250 or more nucleotides in length.
[00617] The term "hybridizes under stringent conditions" is defined above. In one embodiment, the term "hybridizes under stringent conditions" is intended to describe conditions for hybridization and washing under which nucleotide sequences at least 30 %, 40 %, 50 % or 65% identical to each other typically remain hybridized to each other. Preferably, the conditions are such that sequences at least about 70%, more preferably at least about 75% or 80%, and even more preferably at least about 85%, 90% or 95% or more identical to each other typically remain hybridized to each other.
[00618] Preferably, nucleic acid molecule of the invention that hybridizes under stringent conditions to a sequence shown in table I, columns 5 and 7 corresponds to a naturally- occurring nucleic acid molecule of the invention. As used herein, a "naturally-occurring" nu- cleic acid molecule refers to an RNA or DNA molecule having a nucleotide sequence that occurs in nature (e.g., encodes a natural protein). Preferably, the nucleic acid molecule encodes a natural protein having above-mentioned activity, e.g. conferring increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait after increasing the expression or activity thereof or the activity of a protein of the invention or used in the process of the invention by for example expression the nucleic acid sequence of the gene product in the cytosol and/or in an organelle such as a plastid or mitochondria, preferably in plastids.
[00619] In addition to naturally-occurring variants of the sequences of the polypeptide or nucleic acid molecule of the invention as well as of the polypeptide or nucleic acid molecule used in the process of the invention that may exist in the population, the skilled artisan will further appreciate that changes can be introduced by mutation into a nucleotide sequence of the nucleic acid molecule encoding the polypeptide of the invention or used in the process of the present invention, thereby leading to changes in the amino acid sequence of the encoded said polypeptide, without altering the functional ability of the polypeptide, preferably not decreasing said activity.
[00620] For example, nucleotide substitutions leading to amino acid substitutions at "non-essential" amino acid residues can be made in a sequence of the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or used in the process of the invention, e.g. shown in table I, columns 5 and 7.
[00621] A "non-essential" amino acid residue is a residue that can be altered from the wild-type sequence of one without altering the activity of said polypeptide, whereas an "essential" amino acid residue is required for an activity as mentioned above, e.g. leading to increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or an- other mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof in an organism after an increase of activity of the polypeptide. Other amino acid residues, however, (e.g., those that are not conserved or only semi-conserved in the domain having said activity) may not be essential for activity and thus are likely to be amenable to alteration without altering said activity.
[00622] Further, a person skilled in the art knows that the codon usage between organisms can differ. Therefore, he may adapt the codon usage in the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention to the usage of the organism or the cell compartment for example of the plastid or mitochondria in which the polynucleotide or polypeptide is expressed.
[00623] Accordingly, the invention relates to nucleic acid molecules encoding a polypep- tide having above-mentioned activity, in an organisms or parts thereof by for example expression either in the cytosol or in an organelle such as a plastid or mitochondria or both, preferably in plastids that contain changes in amino acid residues that are not essential for said activity. Such polypeptides differ in amino acid sequence from a sequence contained in the sequences shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 yet retain said activity described herein. The nucleic acid molecule can comprise a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide, wherein the polypeptide comprises an amino acid sequence at least about 50% identical to an amino acid sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 and is capable of participation in increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low tempera- ture tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof after increasing its activity, e.g. its expression by for example expression either in the cytosol or in an organelle such as a plastid or mitochon- dria or both, preferably in plastids. Preferably, the protein encoded by the nucleic acid molecule is at least about 60% identical to the sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7, more preferably at least about 70% identical to one of the sequences shown in table II, columns 5 and 7, even more preferably at least about 80%, 90%, 95% homologous to the se- quence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7, and most preferably at least about 96%, 97%, 98%, or 99% identical to the sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7.
[00624] To determine the percentage homology (= identity, herein used interchangeably) of two amino acid sequences or of two nucleic acid molecules, the sequences are written one underneath the other for an optimal comparison (for example gaps may be inserted into the sequence of a protein or of a nucleic acid in order to generate an optimal alignment with the other protein or the other nucleic acid).
[00625] The amino acid residues or nucleic acid molecules at the corresponding amino acid positions or nucleotide positions are then compared. If a position in one sequence is occupied by the same amino acid residue or the same nucleic acid molecule as the corre- sponding position in the other sequence, the molecules are homologous at this position (i.e. amino acid or nucleic acid "homology" as used in the present context corresponds to amino acid or nucleic acid "identity". The percentage homology between the two sequences is a function of the number of identical positions shared by the sequences (i.e. % homology = number of identical positions/total number of positions x 100). The terms "homology" and "identity" are thus to be considered as synonyms.
[00626] For the determination of the percentage homology (=identity) of two or more amino acids or of two or more nucleotide sequences several computer software programs have been developed. The homology of two or more sequences can be calculated with for example the software fasta, which presently has been used in the version fasta 3 (W. R. Pearson and D. J. Lipman, PNAS 85, 2444(1988); W. R. Pearson, Methods in Enzymology 183, 63 (1990); W. R. Pearson and D. J. Lipman, PNAS 85, 2444 (1988) ; W. R. Pearson, Enzymology 183, 63 (1990)). Another useful program for the calculation of homologies of different sequences is the standard blast program, which is included in the Biomax pedant software (Biomax, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany). This leads unfortunately some- times to suboptimal results since blast does not always include complete sequences of the subject and the querry. Nevertheless as this program is very efficient it can be used for the comparison of a huge number of sequences. The following settings are typically used for such a comparisons of sequences: -p Program Name [String]; -d Database [String]; default = nr; -i Query File [File In]; default = stdin; -e Expectation value (E) [Real]; default = 10.0; - m alignment view options: 0 = pairwise; 1 = query-anchored showing identities; 2 = query- anchored no identities; 3 = flat query-anchored, show identities; 4 = flat query-anchored, no identities; 5 = query-anchored no identities and blunt ends; 6 = flat query-anchored, no identities and blunt ends; 7 = XML Blast output; 8 = tabular; 9 tabular with comment lines [Integer]; default = 0; -o BLAST report Output File [File Out] Optional; default = stdout; -F Filter query sequence (DUST with blastn, SEG with others) [String]; default = T; -G Cost to open a gap (zero invokes default behavior) [Integer]; default = 0; -E Cost to extend a gap (zero invokes default behavior) [Integer]; default = 0; -X X dropoff value for gapped alignment (in bits) (zero invokes default behavior); blastn 30, megablast 20, tblastx 0, all others 15 [Integer]; default = 0; -I Show Gl's in deflines [T/F]; default = F; -q Penalty for a nucleotide mismatch (blastn only) [Integer]; default = -3; -r Reward for a nucleotide match (blastn only) [Integer]; default = 1 ; -v Number of database sequences to show one-line descriptions for (V) [Integer]; default = 500; -b Number of database sequence to show alignments for (B) [Integer]; default = 250; -f Threshold for extending hits, default if zero; blastp 1 1 , blastn 0, blastx 12, tblastn 13; tbiastx 13, megablast 0 [Integer]; default = 0; -g Perfom gapped alignment (not available with tbiastx) [T/F]; default = T; -Q Query Genetic code to use [Integer]; default = 1 ; -D DB Genetic code (for tblast[nx] only) [Integer]; default = 1 ; -a Number of processors to use [Integer]; default = 1 ; -O SeqAlign file [File Out] Optional; -J Believe the query defline [T/F]; default = F; -M Matrix [String]; default = BLOSUM62; -W Word size, default if zero (blastn 11 , megablast 28, all others 3) [Integer]; default = 0; -z Effective length of the database (use zero for the real size) [Real]; default = 0; -K Number of best hits from a region to keep (off by default, if used a value of 100 is recommended) [Integer]; default = 0; -P 0 for multiple hit, 1 for single hit [Integer]; default = 0; -Y Effective length of the search space (use zero for the real size) [Real]; default = 0; -S Query strands to search against database (for blast[nx], and tbiastx); 3 is both, 1 is top, 2 is bottom [Integer]; default = 3; -T Produce HTML output [T/F]; default = F; -I Restrict search of database to list of Gl's [String] Optional; -U Use lower case filtering of FASTA sequence [T/F] Optional; default = F; -y X dropoff value for ungapped extensions in bits (0.0 invokes default behavior); blastn 20, megablast 10, all others 7 [Real]; default = 0.0; -Z X dropoff value for final gapped alignment in bits (0.0 invokes default behavior); blastn/megablast 50, tbiastx 0, all others 25 [Integer]; default = 0; -R PSI-TBLASTN checkpoint file [File In] Optional; -n MegaBlast search [T/F]; default = F; -L Location on query sequence [String] Optional; -A Multiple Hits window size, default if zero (blastn/megablast 0, all others 40 [Integer]; default = 0; -w Frame shift penalty (OOF algorithm for blastx) [Integer]; default = 0; -t Length of the largest intron allowed in tblastn for linking HSPs (0 disables linking) [Integer]; default = 0.
[00627] Results of high quality are reached by using the algorithm of Needleman and Wunsch or Smith and Waterman. Therefore programs based on said algorithms are preferred. Advantageously the comparisons of sequences can be done with the program PileUp (J. Mol. Evolution., 25, 351 (1987), Higgins et al., CABIOS 5, 151 (1989)) or preferably with the programs "Gap" and "Needle", which are both based on the algorithms of Needleman and Wunsch (J. Mol. Biol. 48; 443 (1970)), and "BestFit", which is based on the algorithm of Smith and Waterman (Adv. Appl. Math. 2; 482 (1981)). "Gap" and "BestFit" are part of the GCG software-package (Genetics Computer Group, 575 Science Drive, Madi- son, Wisconsin, USA 53711 (1991 ); Altschul et al., (Nucleic Acids Res. 25, 3389 (1997)), "Needle" is part of the The European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite (EMBOSS) (Trends in Genetics 16 (6), 276 (2000)). Therefore preferably the calculations to determine the percentages of sequence homology are done with the programs "Gap" or "Needle" over the whole range of the sequences. The following standard adjustments for the comparison of nucleic acid sequences were used for "Needle": matrix: EDNAFULL, Gap_penalty: 10.0, Extend_penalty: 0.5. The following standard adjustments for the comparison of nucleic acid sequences were used for "Gap": gap weight: 50, length weight: 3, average match: 10.000, average mismatch: 0.000. [00628] For example a sequence, which has 80% homology with sequence SEQ ID NO: 63 at the nucleic acid level is understood as meaning a sequence which, upon comparison with the sequence SEQ ID NO: 63 by the above program "Needle" with the above parameter set, has a 80% homology.
[00629] Homology between two polypeptides is understood as meaning the identity of the amino acid sequence over in each case the entire sequence length which is calculated by comparison with the aid of the above program "Needle" using Matrix: EBLOSUM62, Gap_penalty: 8.0, Extend_penalty: 2.0.
[00630] For example a sequence which has a 80% homology with sequence SEQ ID NO: 64 at the protein level is understood as meaning a sequence which, upon comparison with the sequence SEQ ID NO: 64 by the above program "Needle" with the above parameter set, has a 80% homology.
[00631] Functional equivalents derived from the nucleic acid sequence as shown in table
I, columns 5 and 7 according to the invention by substitution, insertion or deletion have at least 30%, 35%, 40%, 45% or 50%, preferably at least 55%, 60%, 65% or 70% by preference at least 80%, especially preferably at least 85% or 90%, 91 %, 92%, 93% or 94%, very especially preferably at least 95%, 97%, 98% or 99% homology with one of the polypeptides as shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 according to the invention and encode polypeptides having essentially the same properties as the polypeptide as shown in table II, col- umns 5 and 7. Functional equivalents derived from one of the polypeptides as shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 according to the invention by substitution, insertion or deletion have at least 30%, 35%, 40%, 45% or 50%, preferably at least 55%, 60%, 65% or 70% by preference at least 80%, especially preferably at least 85% or 90%, 91 %, 92%, 93% or 94%, very especially preferably at least 95%, 97%, 98% or 99% homology with one of the polypeptides as shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 according to the invention and having essentially the same properties as the polypeptide as shown in table II, columns 5 and 7.
[00632] "Essentially the same properties" of a functional equivalent is above all understood as meaning that the functional equivalent has above mentioned activity, by for example expression either in the cytosol or in an organelle such as a plastid or mitochondria or both, preferably in plastids while increasing the amount of protein, activity or function of said functional equivalent in an organism, e.g. a microorgansim, a plant or plant tissue or animal tissue, plant or animal cells or a part of the same.
[00633] A nucleic acid molecule encoding an homologous to a protein sequence of table
II, columns 5 and 7 can be created by introducing one or more nucleotide substitutions, ad- ditions or deletions into a nucleotide sequence of the nucleic acid molecule of the present invention, in particular of table I, columns 5 and 7 such that one or more amino acid substitutions, additions or deletions are introduced into the encoded protein. Mutations can be introduced into the encoding sequences of table I, columns 5 and 7 by standard techniques, such as site-directed mutagenesis and PCR-mediated mutagenesis.
[00634] Preferably, conservative amino acid substitutions are made at one or more predicted non-essential amino acid residues. A "conservative amino acid substitution" is one in which the amino acid residue is replaced with an amino acid residue having a similar side chain. Families of amino acid residues having similar side chains have been defined in the art. These families include amino acids with basic side chains (e.g., lysine, arginine, his- tidine), acidic side chains (e.g., aspartic acid, glutamic acid), uncharged polar side chains (e.g., glycine, asparagine, glutamine, serine, threonine, tyrosine, cysteine), nonpolar side chains (e.g., alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, proline, phenylalanine, methionine, trypto- phane), beta-branched side chains (e.g., threonine, valine, isoleucine) and aromatic side chains (e.g., tyrosine, phenylalanine, tryptophane, histidine).
[00635] Thus, a predicted nonessential amino acid residue in a polypeptide of the invention or a polypeptide used in the process of the invention is preferably replaced with another amino acid residue from the same family. Alternatively, in another embodiment, mutations can be introduced randomly along all or part of a coding sequence of a nucleic acid molecule of the invention or used in the process of the invention, such as by saturation mutagenesis, and the resultant mutants can be screened for activity described herein to identify mutants that retain or even have increased above mentioned activity, e.g. conferring increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof.
[00636] Following mutagenesis of one of the sequences as shown herein, the encoded protein can be expressed recombinantly and the activity of the protein can be determined using, for example, assays described herein (see Examples).
[00637] The highest homology of the nucleic acid molecule used in the process according to the invention was found for the following database entries by Gap search.
[00638] Homologues of the nucleic acid sequences used, with the sequence shown in table I, columns 5 and 7, comprise also allelic variants with at least approximately 30%,
35%, 40% or 45% homology, by preference at least approximately 50%, 60% or 70%, more preferably at least approximately 90%, 91 %, 92%, 93%, 94% or 95% and even more preferably at least approximately 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or more homology with one of the nucleotide sequences shown or the abovementioned derived nucleic acid sequences or their homologues, derivatives or analogues or parts of these. Allelic variants encompass in particular functional variants which can be obtained by deletion, insertion or substitution of nucleotides from the sequences shown, preferably from table I, columns 5 and 7, or from the derived nucleic acid sequences, the intention being, however, that the enzyme activity or the biological activity of the resulting proteins synthesized is advantageously retained or increased.
[00639] In one embodiment of the present invention, the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or used in the process of the invention comprises the sequences shown in any of the table I, columns 5 and 7. It is preferred that the nucleic acid molecule comprises as little as possible other nucleotides not shown in any one of table I, columns 5 and 7. In one em- bodiment, the nucleic acid molecule comprises less than 500, 400, 300, 200, 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50 or 40 further nucleotides. In a further embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule comprises less than 30, 20 or 10 further nucleotides. In one embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule use in the process of the invention is identical to the sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7.
[00640] Also preferred is that the nucleic acid molecule used in the process of the invention encodes a polypeptide comprising the sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7. In one embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule encodes less than 150, 130, 100, 80, 60, 50, 40 or 30 further amino acids. In a further embodiment, the encoded polypeptide comprises less than 20, 15, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 or 5 further amino acids. In one embodiment used in the inventive process, the encoded polypeptide is identical to the sequences shown in table II, columns 5 and 7.
[00641] In one embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule of the invention or used in the process encodes a polypeptide comprising the sequence shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 comprises less than 100 further nucleotides. In a further embodiment, said nucleic acid molecule comprises less than 30 further nucleotides. In one embodiment, the nucleic acid molecule used in the process is identical to a coding sequence of the sequences shown in table I, columns 5 and 7.
[00642] Polypeptides (= proteins), which still have the essential biological or enzymatic activity of the polypeptide of the present invention conferring increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, plant or part thereof i.e. whose activity is essentially not reduced, are polypeptides with at least 10% or 20%, by preference 30% or 40%, especially preferably 50% or 60%, very especially preferably 80% or 90 or more of the wild type biological activity or enzyme activity, advantageously, the activity is essentially not reduced in comparison with the activity of a polypep- tide shown in table II, columns 5 and 7 expressed under identical conditions.
[00643] Homologues of table I, columns 5 and 7 or of the derived sequences of table II, columns 5 and 7 also mean truncated sequences, cDNA, single-stranded DNA or RNA of the coding and noncoding DNA sequence. Homologues of said sequences are also understood as meaning derivatives, which comprise noncoding regions such as, for example, UTRs, terminators, enhancers or promoter variants. The promoters upstream of the nucleotide sequences stated can be modified by one or more nucleotide substitution(s), insertion^) and/or deletion(s) without, however, interfering with the functionality or activity either of the promoters, the open reading frame (= ORF) or with the 3'-regulatory region such as terminators or other 3'-regulatory regions, which are far away from the ORF. It is further- more possible that the activity of the promoters is increased by modification of their sequence, or that they are replaced completely by more active promoters, even promoters from heterologous organisms. Appropriate promoters are known to the person skilled in the art and are mentioned herein below.
[00644] In addition to the nucleic acid molecules encoding the polypeptide according to the invention described above, another aspect of the invention pertains to negative regulators of the activity of a nucleic acid molecules selected from the group according to table I, column 5 and/or 7, preferably column 7. Antisense polynucleotides thereto are thought to inhibit the downregulating activity of those negative regulators by specifically binding the target polynucleotide and interfering with transcription, splicing, transport, translation, and/or stability of the target polynucleotide. Methods are described in the prior art for targeting the antisense polynucleotide to the chromosomal DNA, to a primary RNA transcript, or to a processed mRNA. Preferably, the target regions include splice sites, translation initiation codons, translation termination codons, and other sequences within the open reading frame.
[00645] The term "antisense," for the purposes of the invention, refers to a nucleic acid comprising a polynucleotide that is sufficiently complementary to all or a portion of a gene, primary transcript, or processed mRNA, so as to interfere with expression of the endoge- nous gene. "Complementary" polynucleotides are those that are capable of base pairing according to the standard Watson-Crick complementarity rules, bpecifically, purines will base pair with pyrimidines to form a combination of guanine paired with cytosine (G:C) and adenine paired with either thymine (A:T) in the case of DNA, or adenine paired with uracil (A:U) in the case of RNA. It is understood that two polynucleotides may hybridize to each other even if they are not completely complementary to each other, provided that each has at least one region that is substantially complementary to the other. The term "antisense nucleic acid" includes single stranded RNA as well as double-stranded DNA expression cassettes that can be transcribed to produce an antisense RNA. "Active" antisense nucleic acids are antisense RNA molecules that are capable of selectively hybridizing with a nega- tive regulator of the activity of a nucleic acid molecules encoding a polypeptide having at least 80% sequence identity with the polypeptide selected from the group according to table II, column 5 and/or 7, preferably column 7.
[00646] The antisense nucleic acid can be complementary to an entire negative regulator strand, or to only a portion thereof. In an embodiment, the antisense nucleic acid mole- cule is antisense to a "noncoding region" of the coding strand of a nucleotide sequence encoding the polypeptide according to the invention. The term "noncoding region" refers to 5' and 3' sequences that flank the coding region that are not translated into amino acids (i.e., also referred to as 5' and 3' untranslated regions). The antisense nucleic acid molecule can be complementary to only a portion of the noncoding region of a mRNA. For example, the antisense oligonucleotide can be complementary to the region surrounding the translation start site of the mRNA. An antisense oligonucleotide can be, for example, about 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 or 50 nucleotides in length. Typically, the antisense molecules of the present invention comprise an RNA having 60-100% sequence identity with at least 14 consecutive nucleotides of a noncoding region of one of the nucleic acid of table I. Preferably, the sequence identity will be at least 70%, more preferably at least 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 98% and most preferably 99%.
[00647] An antisense nucleic acid of the invention can be constructed using chemical synthesis and enzymatic ligation reactions using procedures known in the art. For example, an antisense nucleic acid (e.g., an antisense oligonucleotide) can be chemically synthe- sized using naturally occurring nucleotides or variously modified nucleotides designed to increase the biological stability of the molecules or to increase the physical stability of the duplex formed between the antisense and sense nucleic acids, e.g., phosphorothioate derivatives and acridine substituted nucleotides can be used. Examples of modified nucleo- tides which can be used to generate the antisense nucleic acid include 5-fluorouracil, 5- bromouracil, 5-chlorouracil, 5-iodouracil, hypoxanthine, xanthine, 4-acetylcytosine, 5- (carboxyhydroxylmethyl)-uracil, 5-carboxymethylaminomethyl-2-thiouridine, 5- carboxymethylaminomethyluracil, dihydrouracil, beta-D-galactosylqueosine, inosine, N6- isopentenyladenine, 1 -methylguanine, 1 -methylinosine, 2,2-dimethylguanine, 2- methyladenine, 2-methylguanine, 3-methylcytosine, 5-methylcytosine, N6-adenine, 7- methylguanine, 5-methylaminomethyluracil, 5-methoxyaminomethyl-2-thiouracil, beta-D- mannosylqueosine, 5'-methoxycarboxymethyluracil, 5-methoxyuracil, 2-methylthio-N6- isopentenyladenine, uracil-5-oxyacetic acid (v), wybutoxosine, pseudouracil, queosine, 2- thiocytosine, 5-methyl-2-thiouracil, 2-thiouracil, 4-thiouracil, 5-methyluracil, uracil-5- oxyace- tic acid methylester, 5-methyl-2-thiouracil, 3-(3-amino-3-N-2-carboxypropyl)-uracil, acp3 and 2,6-diaminopurine. Alternatively, the antisense nucleic acid can be produced biologically using an expression vector into which a nucleic acid has been subcloned in an antisense orientation (i.e., RNA transcribed from the inserted nucleic acid will be of an an- tisense orientation to a target nucleic acid of interest, described further in the following subsection).
[00648] In yet another embodiment, the antisense nucleic acid molecule of the invention is an alpha-anomeric nucleic acid molecule. An alpha-anomeric nucleic acid molecule forms specific double-stranded hybrids with complementary RNA in which, contrary to the usual b- units, the strands run parallel to each other (Gaultier et al., Nucleic Acids. Res. 15, 6625 (1987)). The antisense nucleic acid molecule can also comprise a 2'-o-methylribonucleotide (Inoue et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 15, 6131 (1987)) or a chimeric RNA-DNA analogue (Inoue et al., FEBS Lett. 215, 327 (1987)).
[00649] The antisense nucleic acid molecules of the invention are typically administered to a cell or generated in situ such that they hybridize with or bind to cellular mRNA and/or genomic DNA. The hybridization can be by conventional nucleotide complementarity to form a stable duplex, or, for example, in the case of an antisense nucleic acid molecule which binds to DNA duplexes, through specific interactions in the major groove of the double helix. The antisense molecule can be modified such that it specifically binds to a recep- tor or an antigen expressed on a selected cell surface, e.g., by linking the antisense nucleic acid molecule to a peptide or an antibody which binds to a cell surface receptor or antigen. The antisense nucleic acid molecule can also be delivered to cells using the vectors described herein. To achieve sufficient intracellular concentrations of the antisense molecules, vector constructs in which the antisense nucleic acid molecule is placed under the control of a strong prokaryotic, viral, or eukaryotic (including plant) promoter are preferred.
[00650] As an alternative to antisense polynucleotides, ribozymes, sense polynucleotides, or double stranded RNA (dsRNA) can be used to reduce expression of the polypeptide according to the invention polypeptide. By "ribozyme" is meant a catalytic RNA-based enzyme with ribonuclease activity which is capable of cleaving a single-stranded nucleic acid, such as an mRNA, to which it has a complementary region. Ribozymes (e.g., hammerhead ribozymes described in Haselhoff and Gerlach, Nature 334, 585 (1988)) can be used to catalytically cleave the mRNA transcripts to thereby inhibit translation of the mRNA. A ribozyme having specificity for the polypeptide according to the invention-encoding nu- cleic acid can be designed based upon the nucleotide sequence of the polypeptide according to the invention cDNA, as disclosed herein or on the basis of a heterologous sequence to be isolated according to methods taught in this invention. For example, a derivative of a Tetrahymena L-19 IVS RNA can be constructed in which the nucleotide sequence of the active site is complementary to the nucleotide sequence to be cleaved in the polypeptide according to the invention-encoding mRNA. See, e.g. U.S. Patent Nos. 4,987,071 and 5,116,742 to Cech et al. Alternatively, the mRNA can be used to select a catalytic RNA having a specific ribonuclease activity from a pool of RNA molecules. See, e.g. Bartel D., and Szostak J.W., Science 261 , 141 1 (1993). In preferred embodiments, the ribozyme will con- tain a portion having at least 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 or 20 nucleotides, and more preferably 7 or 8 nucleotides, that have 100% complementarity to a portion of the target RNA. Methods for making ribozymes are known to those skilled in the art. See, e.g. U.S. Patent Nos. 6,025,167, 5,773,260 and 5,496,698.
[00651] The term "dsRNA," as used herein, refers to RNA hybrids comprising two strands of RNA. The dsRNAs can be linear or circular in structure. In a preferred embodiment, dsRNA is specific for a polynucleotide encoding either the polypeptide according to table II or a polypeptide having at least 70% sequence identity with a polypeptide according to table II. The hybridizing RNAs may be substantially or completely complementary. By "substantially complementary," is meant that when the two hybridizing RNAs are optimally aligned using the BLAST program as described above, the hybridizing portions are at least 95% complementary. Preferably, the dsRNA will be at least 100 base pairs in length. Typically, the hybridizing RNAs will be of identical length with no over hanging 5' or 3' ends and no gaps. However, dsRNAs having 5' or 3' overhangs of up to 100 nucleotides may be used in the methods of the invention.
[00652] The dsRNA may comprise ribonucleotides or ribonucleotide analogs, such as 2'- O-methyl ribosyl residues, or combinations thereof. See, e.g. U.S. Patent Nos. 4,130,641 and 4,024,222. A dsRNA polyriboinosinic acid: polyribocytidylic acid is described in U.S. patent 4,283,393. Methods for making and using dsRNA are known in the art. One method comprises the simultaneous transcription of two complementary DNA strands, either in vivo, or in a single in vitro reaction mixture. See, e.g. U.S. Patent No. 5,795,715. In one embodiment, dsRNA can be introduced into a plant or plant cell directly by standard transformation procedures. Alternatively, dsRNA can be expressed in a plant cell by transcribing two complementary RNAs.
[00653] Other methods for the inhibition of endogenous gene expression, such as triple helix formation (Moser et al., Science 238, 645 (1987), and Cooney et al., Science 241 , 456 (1988)) and co-suppression (Napoli et al., The Plant Cell 2,279, 1990,) are known in the art. Partial and full-length cDNAs have been used for the c-osuppression of endogenous plant genes. See, e.g. U.S. Patent Nos. 4,801 ,340, 5,034,323, 5,231 ,020, and 5,283,184; Van der Kroll et al., The Plant Cell 2, 291 , (1990); Smith et al., Mol. Gen. Genetics 224, 477 (1990), and Napoli et al., The Plant Cell 2, 279 (1990).
[00654] For sense suppression, it is believed that introduction of a sense polynucleotide blocks transcription of the corresponding target gene. The sense polynucleotide will have at least 65% sequence identity with the target plant gene or RNA. Preferably, the percent identity is at least 80%, 90%, 95% or more. The introduced sense polynucleotide need not be full length relative to the target gene or transcript. Preferably, the sense polynucleotide will have at least 65% sequence identity with at least 100 consecutive nucleotides of one of the nucleic acids as depicted in table I. The regions of identity can comprise introns and and/or exons and untranslated regions. The introduced sense polynucleotide may be present in the plant cell transiently, or may be stably integrated into a plant chromosome or extra-chromosomal replicon.
[00655] Further, embodiment of the invention is an expression vector comprising a nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of:
(a) a nucleic acid molecule encoding the polypeptide shown in column 5 or 7 of table II,;
(b) a nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I;
(c) a nucleic acid molecule, which, as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be derived from a polypeptide sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II, and con- fers an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof;
(d) a nucleic acid molecule having at least 30 % identity, preferably at least 40%, 50%,
60%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99%, 99,5% with the nucleic acid molecule sequence of a polynucleotide comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I, and confers increased yield, e.g. an increased yield- related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for ex- ample an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof ;
(e) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having at least 30 % identity, prefera- bly at least 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99%,
99,5%, with the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of (a), (b), (c) or (d) and having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I, and confers increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof;
(f) nucleic acid molecule which hybridizes with a nucleic acid molecule of (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) under stringent hybridization conditions and confers increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof;
(g) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which can be isolated with the aid of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies made against a polypeptide encoded by one of the nucleic acid molecules of (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) or (f) and having the activity represented by the nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I;
(h) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence or one or more polypeptide motifs as shown in column 7 of table IV, and preferably having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV;
(i) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein as depicted in column 5 of table II, and confers increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type plant cell, a plant or a part thereof;
(j) nucleic acid molecule which comprises a polynucleotide, which is obtained by amplify- ing a cDNA library or a genomic library using the primers in column 7 of table III, and preferably having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV;and
(k) a nucleic acid molecule which is obtainable by screening a suitable nucleic acid library, especially a cDNA library and/or a genomic library, under stringent hybridization conditions with a probe comprising a complementary sequence of a nucleic acid molecule of (a) or (b) or with a fragment thereof, having at least 15 nt, preferably 20 nt, 30 nt, 50 nt, 100 nt, 200 nt, 500 nt, 750 or 1000 nt of a nucleic acid molecule complementary to a nucleic acid molecule sequence characterized in (a) to (e) and encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypep- tide as depicted in column 5 of table II.
[00656] The invention further provides an isolated recombinant expression vector comprising the nucleic acid molecule of the invention, wherein expression of the vector or nucleic acid molecule, respectively in a host cell results in an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to the corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type of the host cell.
[00657] A plant expression cassette preferably contains regulatory sequences capable of driving gene expression in plant cells and operably linked so that each sequence can fulfill its function, for example, termination of transcription by polyadenylation signals. Preferred polyadenylation signals are those originating from Agrobacterium tumefaciens T-DNA such as the gene 3 known as octopine synthase of the Ti-plasmid pTiACH5 (Gielen et al., EMBO J. 3, 835 1 (984)) or functional equivalents thereof but also all other terminators functionally active in plants are suitable. As plant gene expression is very often not limited on transcriptional levels, a plant expression cassette preferably contains other operably linked sequences like translational enhancers such as the overdrive-sequence containing the 5'- untranslated leader sequence from tobacco mosaic virus enhancing the protein per RNA ratio (Gallie et al., Nucl. Acids Research 15, 8693 (1987)).
[00658] Plant gene expression has to be operably linked to an appropriate promoter conferring gene expression in a timely, cell or tissue specific manner. Preferred are promoters driving constitutive expression (Benfey et al., EMBO J. 8, 2195 (1989)) like those derived from plant viruses like the 35S CaMV (Franck et al., Cell 21 , 285 (1980)), the 19S CaMV (see also U.S. Patent No. 5,352,605 and PCT Application No. WO 84/02913) or plant promoters like those from Rubisco small subunit described in U.S. Patent No. 4,962,028.
Other promoters, e.g. super-promoter (Ni et al., Plant Journal 7, 661 (1995)), Ubiquitin promoter (Callis et al., J. Biol. Chem., 265, 12486 (1990); US 5,510,474; US 6,020,190;
Kawalleck et al., Plant. Molecular Biology, 21 , 673 (1993)) or 34S promoter (GenBank Ac- cession numbers M59930 and X16673) were similar useful for the present invention and are known to a person skilled in the art. Developmental stage-preferred promoters are preferentially expressed at certain stages of development. Tissue and organ preferred promoters include those that are preferentially expressed in certain tissues or organs, such as leaves, roots, seeds, or xylem. Examples of tissue preferred and organ preferred promoters include, but are not limited to fruit-preferred, ovule-preferred, male tissue-preferred, seed- preferred, integument-preferred, tuber-preferred, stalk- preferred, pericarp-preferred, and leaf-preferred, stigma-preferred, pollen-preferred, anther- preferred, a petal-preferred, sepal- preferred, pedicel-preferred, silique-preferred, stem-preferred, root-preferred promoters, and the like. Seed preferred promoters are preferentially expressed during seed develop- ment and/or germination. For example, seed preferred promoters can be embryo-preferred, endosperm preferred, and seed coat-preferred. See Thompson et al., BioEssays 10, 108 (1989). Examples of seed preferred promoters include, but are not limited to, cellulose synthase (celA), Cim1 , gamma-zein, globulin-1 , maize 19 kD zein (cZ19B1 ), and the like.
[00659] Other promoters useful in the expression cassettes of the invention include, but are not limited to, the major chlorophyll a/b binding protein promoter, histone promoters, the Ap3 promoter, the β-conglycin promoter, the napin promoter, the soybean lectin promoter, the maize 15kD zein promoter, the 22kD zein promoter, the 27kD zein promoter, the g-zein promoter, the waxy, shrunken 1 , shrunken 2 and bronze promoters, the Zm13 promoter (U.S. Patent No. 5,086,169), the maize polygalacturonase promoters (PG) (U.S. Patent Nos. 5,412,085 and 5,545,546), and the SGB6 promoter (U.S. Patent No. 5,470,359), as well as synthetic or other natural promoters.
[00660] Additional advantageous regulatory sequences are, for example, included in the plant promoters such as CaMV/35S (Franck et al., Cell 21 285 (1980)), PRP1 (Ward et al., Plant. Mol. Biol. 22, 361 (1993)), SSU, OCS, Iib4, usp, STLS1 , B33, LEB4, nos, ubiquitin, napin or phaseolin promoter. Also advantageous in this connection are inducible promoters such as the promoters described in EP 388 186 (benzyl sulfonamide inducible), Gatz et al., Plant J. 2, 397 (1992) (tetracyclin inducible), EP-A-0 335 528 (abscisic acid inducible) or WO 93/21334 (ethanol or cyclohexenol inducible). Additional useful plant promoters are the cytoplasmic FBPase promotor or ST-LSI promoter of potato (Stockhaus et al., EMBO J. 8, 2445 (1989)), the phosphorybosyl phyrophoshate amido transferase promoter of Glycine max (gene bank accession No. U87999) or the noden specific promoter described in EP-A- 0 249 676. Additional particularly advantageous promoters are seed specific promoters which can be used for monocotyledones or dicotyledones and are described in US
5,608,152 (napin promoter from rapeseed), WO 98/45461 (phaseolin promoter from Arabi- dopsis), US 5,504,200 (phaseolin promoter from Phaseolus vulgaris), WO 91/13980 (Bce4 promoter from Brassica) and Baeumlein et al., Plant J., 2 (2), 233 (1992) (LEB4 promoter from leguminosa). Said promoters are useful in dicotyledones. The following promoters are useful for example in monocotyledones lpt-2- or lpt-1 - promoter from barley (WO 95/15389 and WO 95/23230) or hordein promoter from barley. Other useful promoters are described in WO 99/16890. It is possible in principle to use all natural promoters with their regulatory sequences like those mentioned above for the novel process. It is also possible and advantageous in addition to use synthetic promoters.
[00661] The gene construct may also comprise further genes which are to be inserted into the organisms and which are for example involved in stress tolerance and yield increase. It is possible and advantageous to insert and express in host organisms regulatory genes such as genes for inducers, repressors or enzymes which intervene by their enzymatic activity in the regulation, or one or more or all genes of a biosynthetic pathway. These genes can be heterologous or homologous in origin. The inserted genes may have their own promoter or else be under the control of same promoter as the sequences of the nucleic acid of table I or their homologs.
[00662] The gene construct advantageously comprises, for expression of the other genes present, additionally 3' and/or 5' terminal regulatory sequences to enhance expres- sion, which are selected for optimal expression depending on the selected host organism and gene or genes.
[00663] These regulatory sequences are intended to make specific expression of the genes and protein expression possible as mentioned above. This may mean, depending on the host organism, for example that the gene is expressed or over-expressed only after in- duction, or that it is immediately expressed and/or over-expressed.
[00664] The regulatory sequences or factors may moreover preferably have a beneficial effect on expression of the introduced genes, and thus increase it. It is possible in this way for the regulatory elements to be enhanced advantageously at the transcription level by using strong transcription signals such as promoters and/or enhancers. However, in addition, it is also possible to enhance translation by, for example, improving the stability of the mRNA.
[00665] Other preferred sequences for use in plant gene expression cassettes are tar- geting-sequences necessary to direct the gene product in its appropriate cell compartment (for review see Kermode, Crit. Rev. Plant Sci. 15 (4), 285 (1996 )and references cited therein) such as the vacuole, the nucleus, all types of plastids like amyloplasts, chloro- plasts, chromoplasts, the extracellular space, mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum, oil bodies, peroxisomes and other compartments of plant cells.
[00666] Plant gene expression can also be facilitated via an inducible promoter (for re- view see Gatz, Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 48, 89(1997)). Chemically inducible promoters are especially suitable if gene expression is wanted to occur in a time specific manner.
[00667] Table VI lists several examples of promoters that may be used to regulate tran- scription of the nucleic acid coding sequences of the present invention.
[00668] Tab. VI: Examples of tissue-specific and inducible promoters in plants
Figure imgf000186_0001
[00669] Additional flexibility in controlling heterologous gene expression in plants may be obtained by using DNA binding domains and response elements from heterologous sources (i.e., DNA binding domains from non-plant sources). An example of such a heterologous DNA binding domain is the LexA DNA binding domain (Brent and Ptashne, Cell 43, 729 (1985)). [00670] In one embodiment, the language "substantially free of cellular material" includes preparations of a protein having less than about 30% (by dry weight) of contaminating material (also referred to herein as a "contaminating polypeptide"), more preferably less than about 20% of contaminating material, still more preferably less than about 10% of contami- nating material, and most preferably less than about 5% contaminating material.
[00671] The nucleic acid molecules, polypeptides, polypeptide homologs, fusion polypeptides, primers, vectors, and host cells described herein can be used in one or more of the following methods: identification of S. cerevisiae, E.coli or Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Oryza sativa and related organisms; mapping of genomes of organisms re- lated to S. cerevisiae, E.coli; identification and localization of S. cerevisiae, E.coli or Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Oryza sativa sequences of interest; evolutionary studies; determination of polypeptide regions required for function; modulation of a polypeptide activity; modulation of the metabolism of one or more cell functions; modulation of the transmembrane transport of one or more compounds; modulation of yield, e.g. of a yield- related trait, e.g. of tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, e.g. to low temperature tolerance, drought tolerance, water use efficiency, nutrient use efficiency and/or intrinsic yield; and modulation of expression of polypeptide nucleic acids.
[00672] Thenucleic acid molecules of the invention are also useful for evolutionary and polypeptide structural studies. The metabolic and transport processes in which the mole- cules of the invention participate are utilized by a wide variety of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells; by comparing the sequences of the nucleic acid molecules of the present invention to those encoding similar enzymes from other organisms, the evolutionary relatedness of the organisms can be assessed. Similarly, such a comparison permits an assessment of which regions of the sequence are conserved and which are not, which may aid in determining those regions of the polypeptide that are essential for the functioning of the enzyme. This type of determination is of value for polypeptide engineering studies and may give an indication of what the polypeptide can tolerate in terms of mutagenesis without losing function.
[00673] There are a number of mechanisms by which the alteration of the polypeptide of the invention may directly affect yield, e.g. yield-related trait, for example tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance, and/or nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait.
[00674] The effect of the genetic modification in plants regarding yield, e.g. yield-related trait, for example tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance, and/or nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait can be assessed by growing the modified plant under less than suitable conditions and then analyzing the growth characteristics and/or metabolism of the plant. Such analysis techniques are well known to one skilled in the art, and include dry weight, fresh weight, polypeptide synthesis, carbohydrate synthesis, lipid synthe- sis, evapotranspiration rates, general plant and/or crop yield, flowering, reproduction, seed setting, root growth, respiration rates, photosynthesis rates, etc. (Applications of HPLC in Biochemistry in: Laboratory Techniques in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Vol. 17; Rehm et al., 1993 Biotechnology, Vol. 3, Chapter III: Product recovery and purification, page 469-714, VCH: Weinheim; Belter P.A. et al., 1988, Bioseparations: downstream processing for biotechnology, John Wiley and Sons; Kennedy J.F., and Cabral J. M.S., 1992, Recovery processes for biological materials, John Wiley and Sons; Shaeiwitz J.A. and Henry J. D., 1988, Biochemical separations, in Ulmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemis- try, Vol. B3, Chapter 1 1 , page 1 -27, VCH: Weinheim; and Dechow F.J., 1989, Separation and purification techniques in biotechnology, Noyes Publications).
[00675] For example, yeast expression vectors comprising the nucleic acids disclosed herein, or fragments thereof, can be constructed and transformed into S. cerevisiae using standard protocols. The resulting transgenic cells can then be assayed for generation or alteration of their yield, e.g. their yield-related traits, for example tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance, and/or nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait. Similarly, plant expression vectors comprising the nucleic acids disclosed herein, or fragments thereof, can be constructed and transformed into an appropriate plant cell such as rape, maize, cotton, rice, wheat, sugar cane, sugar beet, soy bean, Arabidopsis thaliana, pota- toe, Medicago truncatula, etc., using standard protocols. The resulting transgenic cells and/or plants derived therefrom can then be assayed for generation or alteration of their yield, e.g. their yield-related traits, for example tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance, and/or nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait.
[00676] The engineering of one or more genes according to table I and coding for the polypeptides of table II of the invention may also result in altered activities which indirectly and/or directly impact the tolerance to abiotic environmental stress of algae, plants, ciliates, fungi, or other microorganisms like C. glutamicum.
[00677] In particular, the invention provides a method of producing a transgenic plant with a nucleic acid, wherein expression of the nucleic acid(s) in the plant results in in increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or an- other mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a wild type plant comprising: (a) transforming a plant cell with an expression vector comprising a nucleic acid set forth in Table I and (b) generating from the plant cell a transgenic plant with enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or increased yield as compared to a wild type plant.
[00678] The present invention also provides antibodies that specifically bind to the poly- peptide according to the invention, or a portion thereof, as encoded by a nucleic acid described herein. Antibodies can be made by many well-known methods (see, e.g. Harlow and Lane, "Antibodies; A Laboratory Manual", Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, (1988)). Briefly, purified antigen can be injected into an animal in an amount and in intervals sufficient to elicit an immune response. Antibodies can either be purified directly, or spleen cells can be obtained from the animal. The cells can then fused with an immortal cell line and screened for antibody secretion. The antibodies can be used to screen nucleic acid clone libraries for cells secreting the antigen. Those positive clones can then be sequenced. See, for example, Kelly et al., Bio/Technology 10, 163 (1992); Bebbington et al., Bio/Technology 10, 169 (1992).
[00679] Gene expression in plants is regulated by the interaction of protein transcription factors with specific nucleotide sequences within the regulatory region of a gene. One example of transcription factors are polypeptides that contain zinc finger (ZF) motifs. Each ZF module is approximately 30 amino acids long folded around a zinc ion. The DNA recognition domain of a ZF protein is a a-helical structure that inserts into the major grove of the DNA double helix. The module contains three amino acids that bind to the DNA with each amino acid contacting a single base pair in the target DNA sequence. ZF motifs are arranged in a modular repeating fashion to form a set of fingers that recognize a contiguous DNA sequence. For example, a three-fingered ZF motif will recognize 9 bp of DNA. Hundreds of proteins have been shown to contain ZF motifs with between 2 and 37 ZF modules in each protein (Isalan M. et al., Biochemistry 37 (35), 12026 (1998); Moore M. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98 (4), 1432 (2001 ) and Moore M. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98 (4), 1437 (2001 ); US patents US 6,007,988 and US 6,013,453).
[00680] The regulatory region of a plant gene contains many short DNA sequences (cis- acting elements) that serve as recognition domains for transcription factors, including ZF proteins. Similar recognition domains in different genes allow the coordinate expression of several genes encoding enzymes in a metabolic pathway by common transcription factors. Variation in the recognition domains among members of a gene family facilitates differences in gene expression within the same gene family, for example, among tissues and stages of development and in response to environmental conditions.
[00681] Typical ZF proteins contain not only a DNA recognition domain but also a functional domain that enables the ZF protein to activate or repress transcription of a specific gene. Experimentally, an activation domain has been used to activate transcription of the target gene (US patent 5,789,538 and patent application WO 95/19431), but it is also possible to link a transcription repressor domain to the ZF and thereby inhibit transcription (patent applications WO 00/47754 and WO 01/002019). It has been reported that an enzymatic function such as nucleic acid cleavage can be linked to the ZF (patent application WO 00/20622).
[00682] The invention provides a method that allows one skilled in the art to isolate the regulatory region of one or more polypeptide according to the invention-encoding genes from the genome of a plant cell and to design zinc finger transcription factors linked to a functional domain that will interact with the regulatory region of the gene. The interaction of the zinc finger protein with the plant gene can be designed in such a manner as to alter ex- pression of the gene and preferably thereby to confer increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait.
[00683] In particular, the invention provides a method of producing a transgenic plant with a coding nucleic acid, wherein expression of the nucleic acid(s) in the plant results in in increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or an- other mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a wild type plant comprising: (a) transforming a plant cell with an expression vector comprising a encoding nucleic acid, and (b) generating from the plant cell a transgenic plant with enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or increased yield as compared to a wild type plant. For such plant transformation, binary vectors such as pBinAR can be used (Hofgen and Willmitzer, Plant Science 66, 221 (1990)). Moreover suitable binary vectors are for example pBIN19, pBI101 , pGPTV or pPZP (Hajukiewicz P. et al., Plant Mol. Biol., 25, 989 (1994)).
[00684] Alternate methods of transfection include the direct transfer of DNA into developing flowers via electroporation or Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer. Agrobacterium mediated plant transformation can be performed using for example the GV3101 (pMP90) (Koncz and Schell, Mol. Gen. Genet. 204, 383 (1986)) or LBA4404 (Ooms et al., Plasmid, 7, 15 (1982); Hoekema et al., Nature, 303, 179 (1983)) Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain. Transformation can be performed by standard transformation and regeneration techniques (Deblaere et al., Nucl. Acids. Res. 13, 4777 (1994); Gelvin and Schilperoort, Plant Molecu- lar Biology Manual, 2nd Ed. - Dordrecht : Kluwer Academic Publ., 1995. - in Sect., Ringbuc Zentrale Signatur: BT1 1 -P ISBN 0-7923-2731 -4; Glick B.R. and Thompson J.E., Methods in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Boca Raton : CRC Press, 1993. - 360 S., ISBN 0-8493-5164-2). For example, rapeseed can be transformed via cotyledon or hypocotyl transformation (Moloney et al., Plant Cell Reports 8, 238 (1989); De Block et al., Plant Physiol. 91 , 694 (1989)). Use of antibiotics for Agrobacterium and plant selection depends on the binary vector and the Agrobacterium strain used for transformation. Rapeseed selection is normally performed using kanamycin as selectable plant marker. Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer to flax can be performed using, for example, a technique described by Mlynarova et al., Plant Cell Report 13, 282 (1994)). Additionally, transformation of soybean can be performed using for example a technique described in European Patent No. 424 047, U.S. Patent No. 5,322,783, European Patent No. 397 687, U.S. Patent No. 5,376,543 or U.S. Patent No. 5,169,770. Transformation of maize can be achieved by particle bombardment, polyethylene glycol mediated DNA uptake or via the silicon carbide fiber technique (see, for example, Freeling and Walbot "The maize handbook" Springer Verlag: New York (1993) ISBN 3-540-97826-7). A specific example of maize transformation is found in U.S. Patent No. 5,990,387 and a specific example of wheat transformation can be found in PCT Application No. WO 93/07256.
[00685] Growing the modified plants under defined N-conditions, in an especial embodiment under abiotic environmental stress conditions, and then screening and analyzing the growth characteristics and/or metabolic activity assess the effect of the genetic modification in plants on increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait. Such analysis techniques are well known to one skilled in the art. They include beneath to screening (Rompp Lexikon Biotechnologie, Stuttgart/New York: Georg Thieme Verlag 1992, "screening" p. 701 ) dry weight, fresh weight, protein synthesis, carbohydrate synthesis, lipid synthesis, evapotranspiration rates, general plant and/or crop yield, flowering, reproduction, seed setting, root growth, respira- tion rates, photosynthesis rates, etc. (Applications of HPLC in Biochemistry in: Laboratory Techniques in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Vol. 17; Rehm et al., 1993 Biotechnology, Vol. 3, Chapter III: Product recovery and purification, page 469-714, VCH: Weinheim; Belter, P.A. et al., 1988 Bioseparations: downstream processing for biotechnology, John Wiley and Sons; Kennedy J.F. and Cabral J. M.S., 1992 Recovery processes for biological materials, John Wiley and Sons; Shaeiwitz J.A. and Henry J.D., 1988 Biochemical separations, in: Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Vol. B3, Chapter 1 1 , page 1 -27, VCH: Weinheim; and Dechow F.J. (1989) Separation and purification techniques in biotechnology, Noyes Publications).
[00686] In one embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for the identification of a gene product conferring in increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait as compared to a corresponding, e.g. non-transformed, wild type cell in a cell of an organism for example plant, comprising the following steps:
(a) contacting, e.g. hybridizing, some or all nucleic acid molecules of a sample, e.g. cells, tissues, plants or microorganisms or a nucleic acid library, which can contain a candidate gene encoding a gene product conferring increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing i, with a nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 or 7 of table I A or B, or a functional homologue thereof;
(b) identifying the nucleic acid molecules, which hybridize under relaxed stringent condi- tions with said nucleic acid molecule, in particular to the nucleic acid molecule sequence shown in column 5 or 7 of table I, and, optionally, isolating the full length cDNA clone or complete genomic clone;
(c) identifying the candidate nucleic acid molecules or a fragment thereof in host cells, preferably in a plant cell;
(d) increasing the expressing of the identified nucleic acid molecules in the host cells for which enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or increased yield are desired;
(e) assaying the level of enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress and/or increased yield of the host cells; and
(f) identifying the nucleic acid molecule and its gene product which confers increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait in the host cell compared to the wild type.
[00687] Relaxed hybridization conditions are: After standard hybridization procedures washing steps can be performed at low to medium stringency conditions usually with washing conditions of 40°-55°C and salt conditions between 2 x SSC and 0,2 x SSC with 0,1 % SDS in comparison to stringent washing conditions as e.g. 60°to 68°C with 0,1 % SDS. Fur- ther examples can be found in the references listed above for the stringend hybridization conditions. Usually washing steps are repeated with increasing stringency and length until a useful signal to noise ratio is detected and depend on many factors as the target, e.g. its purity, GC-content, size etc, the probe, e.g. its length, is it a RNA or a DNA probe, salt con- ditions, washing or hybridization temperature, washing or hybridization time etc.
[00688] In another embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for the identification of a gene product the expression of which confers increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait in a cell, comprising the following steps:
(a) identifying a nucleic acid molecule in an organism, which is at least 20%, preferably 25%, more preferably 30%, even more preferred are 35%. 40% or 50%, even more preferred are 60%, 70% or 80%, most preferred are 90% or 95% or more ho- molog to the nucleic acid molecule encoding a protein comprising the polypeptide molecule as shown in column 5 or 7 of table II, or comprising a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown in column 7 of table IV, or being encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as shown in column 5 or 7 of table I, or a homologue thereof as described herein, for example via homology search in a data bank;
(b) enhancing the expression of the identified nucleic acid molecules in the host cells;
(c) assaying the level of enhancement of in increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield- related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increas- ing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield- related trait in the host cells; and
(d) identifying the host cell, in which the enhanced expression confers in increasing yield, e.g. increasing a yield-related trait, for example enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increasing drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait in the host cell compared to a wild type.
[00689] Further, the nucleic acid molecule disclosed herein, in particular the nucleic acid molecule shown column 5 or 7 of table I A or B, may be sufficiently homologous to the sequences of related species such that these nucleic acid molecules may serve as markers for the construction of a genomic map in related organism or for association mapping. Furthermore natural variation in the genomic regions corresponding to nucleic acids disclosed herein, in particular the nucleic acid molecule shown column 5 or 7 of table I A or B, or homologous thereof may lead to variation in the activity of the proteins disclosed herein, in particular the proteins comprising polypeptides as shown in column 5 or 7 of table II A or B, or comprising the consensus sequence or the polypeptide motif as shown in column 7 of table IV, and their homolgous and in consequence in a natural variation of an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature toler- ance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait.
[00690] In consequence natural variation eventually also exists in form of more active allelic variants leading already to a relative increase in yield, e.g. an increase in an yield- related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait. Different variants of the nucleic acids molecule disclosed herein, in particular the nucleic acid comprising the nucleic acid molecule as shown column 5 or 7 of table I A or B, which corresponds to different levels of increased yield, e.g. different levels of increased yield-related trait, for example different enhancing tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or increasing nutrient use efficiency, increasing intrinsic yield and/or another mentioned yield-related trait, can be indentified and used for marker assisted breeding for an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait.
[00691] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a method for breeding plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, comprising
(a) selecting a first plant variety with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nu- trient use efficiency based on increased expression of a nucleic acid of the invention as disclosed herein, in particular of a nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleic acid molecule as shown in column 5 or 7 of table I A or B, or a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide as shown in column 5 or 7 of table II A or B, or comprising a consensus sequence or a polypeptide motif as shown in column 7 of table IV, or a homologue thereof as described herein;
(b) associating the level of increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait with the expression level or the genomic structure of a gene encoding said polypeptide or said nucleic acid molecule;
(c) crossing the first plant variety with a second plant variety, which significantly differs in its level of increased yield, e.g. increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait; and
(d) identifying, which of the offspring varieties has got increased levels of an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature toler- ance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait
[00692] In another embodiment, the present invention relates to a kit comprising the nucleic acid molecule, the vector, the host cell, the polypeptide, or the antisense, RNAi, snRNA, dsRNA, siRNA, miRNA, ta-siRNA, cosuppression molecule, or ribozyme molecule, or the viral nucleic acid molecule, the antibody, plant cell, the plant or plant tissue, the har- vestable part, the propagation material and/or the compound and/or agonist identified according to the method of the invention.
[00693] The compounds of the kit of the present invention may be packaged in contain- ers such as vials, optionally with/in buffers and/or solution. If appropriate, one or more of said components might be packaged in one and the same container. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of said components might be adsorbed to a solid support as, e.g. a nitrocellulose filter, a glas plate, a chip, or a nylon membrane or to the well of a micro titer- plate. The kit can be used for any of the herein described methods and embodiments, e.g. for the production of the host cells, transgenic plants, pharmaceutical compositions, detection of homologous sequences, identification of antagonists or agonists, as food or feed or as a supplement thereof or as supplement for the treating of plants, etc. Further, the kit can comprise instructions for the use of the kit for any of said embodiments. In one embodiment said kit comprises further a nucleic acid molecule encoding one or more of the aforemen- tioned protein, and/or an antibody, a vector, a host cell, an antisense nucleic acid, a plant cell or plant tissue or a plant. In another embodiment said kit comprises PCR primers to detect and discrimante the nucleic acid molecule to be reduced in the process of the invention, e.g. of the nucleic acid molecule of the invention.
[00694] In a further embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for the pro- duction of an agricultural composition providing the nucleic acid molecule for the use according to the process of the invention, the nucleic acid molecule of the invention, the vector of the invention, the antisense, RNAi, snRNA, dsRNA, siRNA, miRNA, ta-siRNA, cosuppression molecule, ribozyme, or antibody of the invention, the viral nucleic acid molecule of the invention, or the polypeptide of the invention or comprising the steps of the method ac- cording to the invention for the identification of said compound or agonist; and formulating the nucleic acid molecule, the vector or the polypeptide of the invention or the agonist, or compound identified according to the methods or processes of the present invention or with use of the subject matters of the present invention in a form applicable as plant agricultural composition.
[00695] In another embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for the production of the plant culture composition comprising the steps of the method of the present invention; and formulating the compound identified in a form acceptable as agricultural composition.
[00696] Under "acceptable as agricultural composition" is understood, that such a com- position is in agreement with the laws regulating the content of fungicides, plant nutrients, herbizides, etc. Preferably such a composition is without any harm for the protected plants and the animals (humans included) fed therewith, said polypeptide or nucleic acid molecule or the genomic structure of the genes encoding said polypeptide or nucleic acid molecule of the invention.
[00697] Throughout this application, various publications are referenced. The disclosures of all of these publications and those references cited within those publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application in order to more fully de- scribe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.
[00698] It should also be understood that the foregoing relates to preferred embodiments of the present invention and that numerous changes and variations may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention. The invention is further illustrated by the following examples, which are not to be construed in any way as limiting. On the contrary, it is to be clearly understood that various other embodiments, modifications and equivalents thereof, which, after reading the description herein, may suggest themselves to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention and/or the scope of the claims.
[00699] In one embodiment, the increased yield results in an increase of the production of a specific ingredient including, without limitation, an enhanced and/or improved sugar content or sugar composition, an enhanced or improved starch content and/or starch composition, an enhanced and/or improved oil content and/or oil composition (such as enhanced seed oil content), an enhanced or improved protein content and/or protein composition (such as enhanced seed protein content), an enhanced and/or improved vitamin con- tent and/ or vitamin composition, or the like.
[00700] Further, in one embodiment, the method of the present invention comprises harvesting the plant or a part of the plant produced or planted and producing fuel with or from the harvested plant or part thereof. Further, in one embodiment, the method of the present invention comprises harvesting a plant part useful for starch isolation and isolating starch from this plant part, wherein the plant is plant useful for starch production, e.g. potato. Further, in one embodiment, the method of the present invention comprises harvesting a plant part useful for oil isolation and isolating oil from this plant part, wherein the plant is plant useful for oil production, e.g. oil seed rape or Canola, cotton, soy, or sunflower.
[00701] For example, in one embodiment, the oil content in the corn seed is increased. Thus, the present invention relates to the production of plants with increased oil content per acre (harvestable oil).
[00702] For example, in one embodiment, the oil content in the soy seed is increased. Thus, the present invention relates to the production of soy plants with increased oil content per acre (harvestable oil).
[00703] For example, in one embodiment, the oil content in the OSR seed is increased. Thus, the present invention relates to the production of OSR plants with increased oil content per acre (harvestable oil).
[00704] For example, the present invention relates to the production of cotton plants with increased oil content per acre (harvestable oil).
[00705] The present invention is illustrated by the following examples which are not meant to be limiting.
[00706] Example 1 :
Engineering Arabidopsis plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait by over-expressing the genes of Table I, e.g. expressing genes of the present invention.
[00707] Cloning of the sequences of the present invention as shown in table I, column 5 and 7, for the expression in plants.
[00708] Unless otherwise specified, standard methods, for example as described in Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A laboratory manual, Cold Spring Harbor 1989, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press can be used.
[00709] The inventive sequences as shown in table I, column 5, were amplified by PCR as described in the protocol of the Pfu Ultra, Pfu Turbo or Herculase DNA polymerase (Stratagene). The composition for the protocol of the Pfu Ultra, Pfu Turbo or Herculase DNA polymerase was as follows: 1 x PCR buffer (Stratagene), 0.2 mM of each dNTP, 100 ng genomic DNA of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (strain S288C; Research Genetics, Inc., now Invitrogen), Escherichia coli (strain MG1655; E.coli Genetic Stock Center), Synechocystis sp. (strain PCC6803), Azotobacter vinelandii (strain N.R. Smith, 16), Thermus thermophilus (HB8) or 50 ng cDNA from various tissues and development stages of Arabidopsis thaliana (ecotype Columbia), Physcomitrella patens, Populus trichocarpa, Oryza sativa, Glycine max (variety Resnick), or Zea mays (variety B73, Mo17, A188), 50 pmol forward primer, 50 pmol reverse primer, with or without 1 M Betaine, 2.5 u Pfu Ultra, Pfu Turbo or Herculase DNA polymerase.
[00710] The amplification cycles were as follows:
[00711] 1 cycle of 2-3 minutes at 94-95°C, then 25-36 cycles with 30-60 seconds at 94- 95°C, 30-45 seconds at 50-60°C and 210-480 seconds at 72°C, followed by 1 cycle of 5-10 minutes at 72°C, then 4-16°C - preferably for Saccharomyces cerevisiae,
Escherichia coli, Synechocystis sp., Azotobacter vinelandii, Thermus thermophilus.
[00712] In case of Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Oryza sativa, Physcomitrella patens, Populus trichocarpa, Zea mays the amplification cycles were as follows:
1 cycle with 30 seconds at 94°C, 30 seconds at 61 °C, 15 minutes at 72°C,
then 2 cycles with 30 seconds at 94°C, 30 seconds at 60°C, 15 minutes at 72°C,
then 3 cycles with 30 seconds at 94°C, 30 seconds at 59°C, 15 minutes at 72°C,
then 4 cycles with 30 seconds at 94°C, 30 seconds at 58°C, 15 minutes at 72°C, then 25 cycles with 30 seconds at 94°C, 30 seconds at 57°C, 15 minutes at 72°C, then 1 cycle with 10 minutes at 72°C,
then finally 4-16°C.
[00713] RNA were generated with the RNeasy Plant Kit according to the standard proto- col (Qiagen) and Superscript II Reverse Transkriptase was used to produce double stranded cDNA according to the standard protocol (Invitrogen).
[00714] ORF specific primer pairs for the genes to be expressed are shown in table III, column 7. The following adapter sequences were added to Saccharomyces cerevisiae ORF specific primers (see table III) for cloning purposes:
i) foward primer: 5'-GGAATTCCAGCTGACCACC-3'
SEQ ID NO: 1
ii) reverse primer: 5 '-GATCCCCGGGAATTGCCATG-3 '
SEQ ID NO: 2
These adaptor sequences allow cloning of the ORF into the various vectors containing the Resgen adaptors, see table column E of table VII.
[00715] The following adapter sequences were added to Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Escherichia coli,Synechocystis sp., Azotobacter vinelandii, Thermus thermophilus, Arabi- dopsis thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Oryza sativa , Physcomitrella patens, Popu- lus trichocarpa, orZea mays ORF specific primers for cloning purposes:
iii) forward primer: 5'-TTGCTCTTCC- 3'
SEQ ID NO: 3
iiii) reverse primer: 5"-TTGCTCTTCG-3'
SEQ ID NO: 4
The adaptor sequences allow cloning of the ORF into the various vectors containing the Colic adaptors, see table column E of table VII.
[00716] Therefore for amplification and cloning of Saccharomyces cerevisiae SEQ ID NO: 5042, a primer consisting of the adaptor sequence i) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 5058 and a second primer consisting of the adaptor sequence ii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 5059 were used.
[00717] For amplification and cloning of Escherichia coil SEQ ID NO: 1709, a primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 2221 and a second primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iiii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 2222 were used.
[00718] For amplification and cloning of Thermus thermophilus SEQ ID NO: 4630, a primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 5036 and a second primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iiii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 5037 were used.
[00719] For amplification and cloning of Arabidopsis thaliana SEQ ID NO: 63, a primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 377 and a second primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iiii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 378 were used. [00720] For amplification and cloning of Oryza sativa SEQ ID NO: 9854, a primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 9964 and a second primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iiii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 9965 were used.
[00721] For amplification and cloning of Populus trichocarpa SEQ ID NO: 2457, a primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 3457 and a second primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iiii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 3458 were used.
[00722] For amplification and cloning of Zea mays SEQ ID NO: 5492, a primer consist- ing of the adaptor sequence iii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 5834 and a second primer consisting of the adaptor sequence iiii) and the ORF specific sequence SEQ ID NO: 5835 were used.
[00723] Following these examples every sequence disclosed in table I, preferably column 5, can be cloned by fusing the adaptor sequences to the respective specific primers sequences as disclosed in table III, column 7 using the respective vectors shown in Table VII.
[00724] TABLE VII. Overview of the different vectors used for cloning the ORFs and shows their SEQIDs (column A), their vector names (column B), the promotors they contain for expression of the ORFs (column C), the additional artificial targeting sequence column D), the adapter sequence (column E), the expression type conferred by the promoter mentioned in column B (column F) and the figure number (column G).
A B C D E F G
Seq Vector Name Promoter Target Adapter Expression Type Figure ID Name Sequence Sequence
9 pMTX0270p Super Colic non targeted constitu6 tive expression preferentially in green tissues
1 pMTX155 Big35S Resgen non targeted constitu7 tive expression preferentially in green tissues
2 VC- Super FNR Resgen plastidic targeted con3
MME354- stitutive expression
1 QCZ preferentially in green tissues
4 VC- Super IVD Resgen mitochondric targeted 8
MME356- constitutive expression 1 QCZ preferentially in green
tissues
VC- USP Resgen non targeted expres9 MME301 - sion preferentially in
1 QCZ seeds
pMTX461 kor USP FNR Resgen plastidic targeted ex10 rp pression preferentially
in seeds
VC- USP IVD Resgen mitochondric targeted 1 1 MME462- expression preferen1 QCZ tially in seeds
VC- Super Colic non targeted constitu1 MME220- tive expression prefer1 qcz entially in green tissues
VC- Super FNR Colic plastidic targeted con4 MME432- stitutive expression
1 qcz preferentially in green
tissues
VC- Super IVD Colic mitochondric targeted 12 MME431 - constitutive expression
1 qcz preferentially in green
tissues
VC- PcUbi Colic non targeted constitu2 MME221 - tive expression prefer1 qcz entially in green tissues
pMTX447kor PcUbi FNR Colic plastidic targeted con13 r stitutive expression
preferentially in green
tissues
VC- PcUbi IVD Colic mitochondric targeted 14 MME445- constitutive expression
1 qcz preferentially in green
tissues
VC- USP Colic non targeted expres15 MME289- sion preferentially in
1 qcz seeds
VC- USP FNR Colic plastidic targeted ex16 MME464- pression preferentially
1 qcz in seeds
VC- USP IVD Colic mitochondric targeted 17 MME465- expression in prefer- 1 qcz entially seeds6 VC- Super Resgen non targeted constitu5
MME489- tive expression prefer1 QCZ entially in green tissues
[00725] Example 1 b)
Construction of binary vectors for non-targeted expression of proteins.
[00726] "Non-targeted" expression in this context means, that no additional targeting sequence were added to the ORF to be expressed.
[00727] For non-targeted expression the binary vectors used for cloning were VC- MME220-1 qcz SEQ ID NO 41 (figure 2), VC-MME221 -1 qcz SEQ ID NO 46 (figure 2) and VC-MME489-1 QCZ SEQ ID NO: 56 (figure 5), respectively. The binary vectors used for cloning the targeting sequence were VC-MME489-1 QCZ SEQ ID NO: 56 (figure 5), pMTX155 SEQ ID NO 31 (figure 7) and pMTX0270p SEQ ID NO 9 (figure 6), respectively. For non-targeted constitutive expression in preferentially green tissues the Big35S promoter ((Comai et al., Plant Mol Biol 15, 373-383 (1990), Kawalleck et al., Plant. Molecular Biology, 21 , 673 (1993)) was used in context of the vector pMTX155. Other useful binary vectors are known to the skilled worker; an overview of binary vectors and their use can be found in Hellens R., Mullineaux P. and Klee H., (Trends in Plant Science, 5 (10), 446 (2000)). Such vectors have to be equally equipped with appropriate promoters and targeting sequences.
[00728] EXAMPLE 1 C):
Amplification of the plastidic targeting sequence of the gene FNR from Spinacia oleracea and construction of vector for plastid-targeted expression in preferential green tissues or preferential in seeds.
[00729] In order to amplify the targeting sequence of the FNR gene from S. oleracea, genomic DNA was extracted from leaves of 4 weeks old S. oleracea plants (DNeasy Plant Mini Kit, Qiagen, Hilden). The gDNA was used as the template for a PCR.
[00730] To enable cloning of the transit sequence into the vector VC-MME489-1 QCZ an EcoRI restriction enzyme recognition sequence was added to both the forward and reverse primers, whereas for cloning in the vectors pMTX0270p, VC-MME220-1 qcz and VC- MME221 -1 qcz a Pmel restriction enzyme recognition sequence was added to the forward primer and a Ncol site was added to the reverse primer.
FNR5EcoResgen ATA GAA TTC GCA TAA ACT TAT CTT CAT AGT TGC C
SEQ ID NO: 5
FNR3EcoResgen ATA GAA TTC AGA GGC GAT CTG GGC CCT
SEQ ID NO: 6 FNR5PmeColic ATA GTT TAA ACG CAT AAA CTT ATC TTC ATA GTT GCC
SEQ ID NO: 7
FNR3NcoColic ATA CCA TGG AAG AGC AAG AGG CGA TCT GGG CCC T
SEQ ID NO: 8
[00731] The resulting sequence SEQ ID NO: 29 amplified from genomic spinach DNA, comprised a 5'UTR (bp 1 -165), and the coding region (bp 166-273 and 351 -419). The coding sequence is interrupted by an intronic sequence from bp 274 to bp 350:
gcataaacttatcttcatagttgccactccaatttgctccttgaatctcctccacccaatacataatccactcctccatcaccc acttcactactaaatcaaacttaactctgtttttctctctcctcctttcatttcttattcttccaatcatcgtactccgccatgaccac cgctgtcaccgccgctgtttctttcccctctaccaaaaccacctctctctccgcccgaagctcctccgtcatttcccctgaca aaatcagctacaaaaaggtgattcccaatttcactgtgttttttattaataatttgttattttgatgatgagatgattaatttgggt gctgcaggttcctttgtactacaggaatgtatctgcaactgggaaaatgggacccatcagggcccagatcgcctct
(SEQ ID NO: 29)
[00732] Th e PC R frag me nt d e ri ved with th e p ri m ers F N R5 E coResgen and FNR3EcoResgen was digested with EcoRI and ligated in the vector VC-MME489-1 QCZ that had also been digested with EcoRI. The correct orientation of the FNR targeting sequence was tested by sequencing. The vector generated in this ligation step were VC- MME354-1QCZ.
[00733] The PCR fragment derived with the primers FNR5PmeCo//'c and FNR3NcoCo//'c was digested with Pmel and Ncol and ligated in the vectors VC-MME220-1 qcz and VC- MME221 -1 qcz that had been digested with Smal and Ncol. The vectors generated in this ligation step were VC-MME432-1 qcz and pMTX447korr, respectively.
[00734] For plastidic-targeted constitutive expression in preferentially green tissues an artifical promoter A(ocs)3AmasPmas promoter (Super promotor) ) (Ni et al,. Plant Journal 7, 661 (1995), WO 95/14098) was used in context of the vector VC-MME354-1 QCZ for ORFs from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in context of the vector VC-MME432-1 qcz for ORFs from Escherichia coii, resulting in each case in an "in-frame" fusion of the FNR targeting sequence with the ORFs.
[00735] For plastidic-targeted constitutive expression in preferentially green tissues and seeds the PcUbi promoter was used in context of the vector pMTX447korr for ORFs from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Escherichia coii, Synechocystis sp., Azotobacter vinelandii, Thermus thermophilus, Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Oryza sativa, Physcomitrella patens, Popuius trichocarpa, orZea mays, resulting in each case in an "in- frame" fusion of the FNR targeting sequence with the ORFs.
[00736] EXAMPLE 1 D)
Construction of binary vectors for mitochond he- targeted expression of proteins
[00737] Amplification of the mitochondrial targeting sequence of the gene IVD from Arabidopsis thaliana and construction of vector for mitochondrial-targeted expression in preferential green tissues or preferential in seeds.
[00738] In order to amplify the targeting sequence of the IVD gene from A. thaliana, genomic DNA was extracted from leaves of A.thaliana plants (DNeasy Plant Mini Kit, Qiagen, Hilden). The gDNA was used as the template for a PCR.
[00739] To enable cloning of the transit sequence into the vectors VC-MME489-1 QCZ and VC-MME301 -1 QCZ an EcoRI restriction enzyme recognition sequence was added to both the forward and reverse primers, whereas for cloning in the vectors VC-MME220-1 qcz, VC-MME221 -1qcz and VC-MME289-1qcz a Pmel restriction enzyme recognition sequence was added to the forward primer and a Ncol site was added to the reverse primer.
IVD5EcoResgen ATA GAA TTC ATG CAG AGG TTT TTC TCC GC
SEQ ID NO: 57
IVD3EcoResgen ATAg AAT TCC gAA gAA CgA gAA gAg AAA g
SEQ ID NO: 58
IVD5PmeCo//'c ATA GTT TAA ACA TGC AGA GGT TTT TCT CCG C
SEQ ID NO: 59
IVD3NcoCo//'c ATA CCA TGG AAG AGC AAA GGA GAG ACG AAG AAC GAG
SEQ ID NO: 60
[00740] The resulting sequence (SEQ ID NO: 61 ) amplified from genomic A.thaliana DNA with IVD5EcoResgen and IVD3EcoResgen comprised 81 bp:
atgcagaggtttttctccgccagatcgattctcggttacgccgtcaagacgcggaggaggtctttctcttctcgttcttcg
SEQ ID NO: 61
The resulting sequence (SEQ ID NO: 62) amplified from genomic A. thaliana DNA with IVD5PmeCo//'c and IVD3NcoCo//'c comprised 89 bp:
atgcagaggtttttctccgccagatcgattctcggttacgccgtcaagacgcggaggaggtctttctcttctcgttcttcgtctctcct SEQ ID NO: 62
[00741] Th e PC R fra g m en t d e rived wi th th e p ri m e rs I VD 5 E coResgen and IVD3EcoResgen was digested with EcoRI and ligated in the vectors VC-MME489-1 QCZ and VC-MME301 -1 QCZ that had also been digested with EcoRI. The correct orientation of the IVD targeting sequence was tested by sequencing. The vectors generated in this ligation step were VC-MME356-1QCZ and VC-MME462-1 QCZ, respectively.
[00742] The PCR fragment derived with the primers IVD5PmeCo//'c and IVD3NcoCo//'c was digested with Pmel and Ncol and ligated in the vectors VC-MME220-1qcz, VC- MME221 -1 qcz and VC-MME289-1 qcz that had been digested with Smal and Ncol. The vectors generated in this ligation step were VC-MME431 -1 qcz, VC-MME465-1 qcz and VC- MME445-1 qcz, respectively.
[00743] For mitochondrial-targeted constitutive expression in preferentially green tissues an artifical promoter A(ocs)3AmasPmas promoter (Super promotor) (Ni et al,. Plant Journal 7, 661 (1995), WO 95/14098) was used in context of the vector VC-MME356-1 QCZ for ORFs from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in context of the vector VC-MME431 -1 qcz for ORFs from Escherichia coii , resulting in each case in an "in-frame" fusion between the IVD sequence and the respective ORFs.
[00744] For mitochondrial-targeted constitutive expression in preferentially seeds the USP promoter (Baumlein et al., Mol Gen Genet. 225(3):459-67 (1991 )) was used in context of the vector VC-MME462-1 QCZ for ORFs from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in context of the vector VC-MME465-1 qcz for ORFs from Escherichia coii , resulting in each case in an "in-frame" fusion between the IVD sequence and the respective ORFs.
[00745] For mitochondrial-targeted constitutive expression in preferentially green tissues and seeds the PcUbi promoter was used in context of the vector VC-MME445-1 qcz for ORFs from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Escherichia coii, Synechocystis sp., Azotobacter vinelandii, Thermus thermophilus, Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Oryza sativa, Physcomitrella patens, Popuius trichocarpa, or Zea mays, resulting in each case in an "in-frame" fusion between the IVD sequence and the respective ORFs.
[00746] Other useful binary vectors are known to the skilled worker; an overview of binary vectors and their use can be found in Hellens R., Mullineaux P. and Klee H., (Trends in Plant Science, 5 (10), 446 (2000)). Such vectors have to be equally equipped with appro- priate promoters and targeting sequences.
[00747] EXAMPLE 1 E)
Cloning of inventive sequences as shown in table I, column 5 in the different expression vectors.
[00748] For cloning the ORFs of SEQ ID NO: 5042 from S. cerevisiae into vectors con- taining the Resgen adaptor sequence the respective vector DNA was treated with the restriction enzyme Ncol. For cloning of ORFs from Saccharomyces cerevisiae into vectors containing the Colic adaptor sequence, the respective vector DNA was treated with the restriction enzymes Pad and Ncol following the standard protocol (MBI Fermentas). For cloning of ORFs from Escherichia coii ,Synechocystis sp., Azotobacter vinelandii, Thermus thermophilus, Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Oryza sativa , Physcomitrella patens, Popuius trichocarpa, or Zea mays the vector DNA was treated with the restriction enzymes Pad and Ncol following the standard protocol (MBI Fermentas). In all cases the reaction was stopped by inactivation at 70°C for 20 minutes and purified over QIAquick or NucleoSpin Extract II columns following the standard protocol (Qiagen or Macherey- Nagel).
[00749] Then the PCR-product representing the amplified ORF with the respective adapter sequences and the vector DNA were treated with T4 DNA polymerase according to the standard protocol (MBI Fermentas) to produce single stranded overhangs with the parameters 1 unit T4 DNA polymerase at 37°C for 2-10 minutes for the vector and 1 -2 u T4 DNA polymerase at 15-17°C for 10-60 minutes for the PCR product representing SEQ ID NO: 5042.
[00750] The reaction was stopped by addition of high-salt buffer and purified over QIAquick or NucleoSpin Extract II columns following the standard protocol (Qiagen or Ma- cherey-Nagel).
[00751] According to this example the skilled person is able to clone all sequences disclosed in table I, preferably column 5.
[00752] Approximately 30-60 ng of prepared vector and a defined amount of prepared amplificate were mixed and hybridized at 65°C for 15 minutes followed by 37°C 0,1 °C/1 seconds, followed by 37°C 10 minutes, followed by 0,1 °C/1 seconds, then 4-10 °C.
[00753] The ligated constructs were transformed in the same reaction vessel by addition of competent E. coli cells (strain DH5alpha) and incubation for 20 minutes at 1 °C followed by a heat shock for 90 seconds at 42°C and cooling to 1 -4°C. Then, complete medium (SOC) was added and the mixture was incubated for 45 minutes at 37°C. The entire mixture was subsequently plated onto an agar plate with 0.05 mg/ml kanamycin and incubated overnight at 37°C.
[00754] The outcome of the cloning step was verified by amplification with the aid of primers which bind upstream and downstream of the integration site, thus allowing the amplification of the insertion. The amplifications were carried out as described in the protocol of Taq DNA polymerase (Gibco-BRL). The amplification cycles were as follows:
[00755] 1 cycle of 1 -5 minutes at 94°C, followed by 35 cycles of in each case 15-60 seconds at 94°C, 15-60 seconds at 50-66°C and 5-15 minutes at 72°C, followed by 1 cycle of 10 minutes at 72°C, then 4-16°C.
[00756] Several colonies were checked, but only one colony for which a PCR product of the expected size was detected was used in the following steps.
[00757] A portion of this positive colony was transferred into a reaction vessel filled with complete medium (LB) supplemented with kanamycin and incubated overnight at 37°C.
[00758] The plasmid preparation was carried out as specified in the Qiaprep or NucleoSpin Multi-96 Plus standard protocol (Qiagen or Macherey-Nagel).
[00759] Generation of transgenic plants which express SEQ ID NO: 5042 or any other sequence disclosed in table I, preferably column 5
[00760] 1 -5 ng of the plasmid DNA isolated as described above was transformed by electroporation or transformation into competent cells of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. For expression of OS02G44730 (SEQ ID NO 13501 ), the same amount of isolated plasmid DNA of the polynucleotide sequence given in SEQ ID NO: 13933 isolated according prepa- ration method was used. Agrobacterium tumefaciens was strain GV 3101 pMP90 (Koncz and Schell, Mol. Gen. Gent. 204, 383 (1986)). After transformation, complete medium (YEP) was added and the mixture was transferred into a fresh reaction vessel for 3 hours at 28°C. Thereafter, all of the reaction mixture was plated onto YEP agar plates supplemented with the respective antibiotics, e.g. rifampicine (0.1 mg/ml), gentamycine (0.025 mg/ml and kanamycin (0.05 mg/ml) and incubated for 48 hours at 28°C.
[00761] The agrobacteria that contains the plasmid construct were then used for the transformation of plants.
[00762] A colony was picked from the agar plate with the aid of a pipette tip and taken up in 3 ml of liquid TB medium, which also contained suitable antibiotics as described above. The preculture was grown for 48 hours at 28°C and 120 rpm.
[00763] 400 ml of LB medium containing the same antibiotics as above were used for the main culture. The preculture was transferred into the main culture. It was grown for 18 hours at 28°C and 120 rpm. After centrifugation at 4 000 rpm, the pellet was resuspended in infiltration medium (MS medium, 10% sucrose).
[00764] In order to grow the plants for the transformation, dishes (Piki Saat 80, green, provided with a screen bottom, 30 x 20 x 4.5 cm, from Wiesauplast, Kunststofftechnik, Germany) were half-filled with a GS 90 substrate (standard soil, Werkverband E.V., Germany). The dishes were watered overnight with 0.05% Proplant solution (Chimac-Apriphar, Belgium). A. thaliana C24 seeds (Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre, UK; NASC Stock N906) were scattered over the dish, approximately 1 000 seeds per dish. The dishes were covered with a hood and placed in the stratification facility (8 h, 110 pmol/m2s1, 22°C; 16 h, dark, 6°C). After 5 days, the dishes were placed into the short-day controlled environment chamber (8 h, 130 pmol/m2s1, 22°C; 16 h, dark, 20°C), where they remained for approxi- mately 10 days until the first true leaves had formed.
[00765] The seedlings were transferred into pots containing the same substrate (Teku pots, 7 cm, LC series, manufactured by Poppelmann GmbH & Co, Germany). Five plants were pricked out into each pot. The pots were then returned into the short-day controlled environment chamber for the plant to continue growing.
After 10 days, the plants were transferred into the greenhouse cabinet (supplementary illumination, 16 h, 340 μΕ/ιη28, 22°C; 8 h, dark, 20°C), where they were allowed to grow for further 17 days.
[00766] For the transformation, 6-week-old Arabidopsis plants, which had just started flowering were immersed for 10 seconds into the above-described agrobacterial suspension which had previously been treated with 10 μΙ Silwett L77 (Crompton S.A., Osi Specialties, Switzerland). The method in question is described by Clough J.C. and Bent A.F. (Plant J. 16, 735 (1998)). [00767] The plants were subsequently placed for 18 hours into a humid chamber. Thereafter, the pots were returned to the greenhouse for the plants to continue growing. The plants remained in the greenhouse for another 10 weeks until the seeds were ready for harvesting.
[00768] Depending on the tolerance marker used for the selection of the transformed plants the harvested seeds were planted in the greenhouse and subjected to a spray selection or else first sterilized and then grown on agar plates supplemented with the respective selection agent. Since the vector contained the bar gene as the tolerance marker, plantlets were sprayed four times at an interval of 2 to 3 days with 0.02 % BASTA® and transformed plants were allowed to set seeds.
The seeds of the transgenic A. thaliana plants were stored in the freezer (at -20°C).
[00769] Plant screening for yield increase under standardised growth conditions
[00770] In this experiment, a plant screening for yield increase (in this case: biomass yield increase) under standardised growth conditions in the absence of substantial abiotic stress has been performed. In a standard experiment soil is prepared as 3.5:1 (v/v) mixture of nutrient rich soil (GS90, Tantau, Wansdorf, Germany) and quarz sand. Alternatively, plants were sown on nutrient rich soil (GS90, Tantau, Germany). Pots were filled with soil mixture and placed into trays. Water was added to the trays to let the soil mixture take up appropriate amount of water for the sowing procedure. The seeds for transgenic A. thaliana plants and their non-trangenic wild-type controls were sown in pots (6cm diameter). Then the filled tray was covered with a transparent lid and transferred into a precooled (4°C-5°C) and darkened growth chamber. Stratification was established for a period of 3-4 days in the dark at 4°C-5°C. Germination of seeds and growth was initiated at a growth condition of 20°C, 60% relative humidity, 16h photoperiod and illumination with fluorescent light at ap- proximately 170 pmol/m2s. Covers were removed 7-8 days after sowing. BASTA selection was done at day 10 or day 1 1 (9 or 10 days after sowing) by spraying pots with plantlets from the top. In the standard experiment, a 0.07% (v/v) solution of BASTA concentrate (183 g/l glufosinate-ammonium) in tap water was sprayed once or, alternatively, a 0.02% (v/v) solution of BASTA was sprayed three times. The wild-type control plants were sprayed with tap water only (instead of spraying with BASTA dissolved in tap water) but were otherwise treated identically. Plants were individualized 13-14 days after sowing by removing the surplus of seedlings and leaving one seedling in soil. Transgenic events and wild-type control plants were evenly distributed over the chamber.
[00771] Watering was carried out every two days after removing the covers in a standard experiment or, alternatively, every day. For measuring biomass performance, plant fresh weight was determined at harvest time (28-29 days after sowing) by cutting shoots and weighing them. Plants were in the stage prior to flowering and prior to growth of inflores- cence when harvested. Transgenic plants were compared to the non-transgenic wild-type control plants harvested at the same day. Significance values for the statistical significance of the biomass changes were calculated by applying the 'student's' t test (parameters: two- sided, unequal variance).
[00772] Per transgenic construct up to 4 independent transgenic lines (=events) were tested and biomass performance was evaluated as described above.
[00773] TABLE Vllll-D: Biomass production of transgenic A. thaliana grown under standardised growth conditions.
Biomass production was measured by weighing plant rosettes. Biomass increase was cal- culated as ratio of average weight of transgenic plants compared to average weight of wild- type control plants from the same experiment. The mean biomass increase of transgenic constructs is given (significance value < 0.3 and biomass increase > 5% (ratio > 1 .05)).
SeqID Target ORF Biomass Increase
63 cytoplasmic AT1 G06620_modifie 1 .17
d
641 cytoplasmic AT1 G53885 1 .25
2457 cytoplasmic CDS5293_modified 1 .1 1
3463 cytoplasmic CDS5305 1 .06
6494 cytoplasmic AT3G09480 1 .19
7434 cytoplasmic AT4G 1 1890 1 .24
7513 cytoplasmic AT5G07310 1 .40
7545 cytoplasmic CDS5422 1 .12
8287 cytoplasmic AT4G22240.1 1 .14
7864 cytoplasmic AT1 G09350.1 1 .13
8152 cytoplasmic AT2G42540.1 1 .06
8408 cytoplasmic At5g37670.1 1 .06
10880 cytoplasmic AT1 G44760 1 .05
10965 cytoplasmic AT1 G54050.1 1 .13
1 1418 cytoplasmic AT2G27040 1 .06
12196 cytoplasmic AT2G35300 1 .23
12316 cytoplasmic AT2G35930 1 .08
13276 cytoplasmic AT5G 13220 1 .24 13245 cytoplasmic AT4G 15420.1 1.23
10753 cytoplasmic 60952769.R01.1 1.15
13309 cytoplasmic AT5G42380 1.32
10749 cytoplasmic 57972199.R01.1 1.30
13501 cytoplasmic OS02G44730 1.30
13102 cytoplasmic AT3G24515 1.23
[00774] EXAMPLE 1 G:
Plant Screening (Arabidopsis) for growth under limited nitrogen
[00775] Three different procedures were used for screening:
[00776] Procedure 1 ). Per transgenic construct 4 independent transgenic lines (=events) were tested (22-28 plants per construct). Arabidopsis thaliana seeds were sown in pots containing a 1 :1 (v:v) mixture of nutrient depleted soil ("Einheitserde Typ 0", 30% clay, Tan- tau, Wansdorf Germany) and sand. Germination was induced by a four day period at 4°C, in the dark. Subsequently the plants were grown under standard growth conditions (photo- period of 16 h light and 8 h dark, 20 °C, 60% relative humidity, and a photon flux density of 200 μΕ). The plants were grown and cultured, inter alia they were watered every second day with a N-depleted nutrient solution. The N-depleted nutrient solution e.g. contained beneath water
Figure imgf000208_0001
[00777] After 9 to 10 days the plants were individualized. After a total time of 28 to 31 days the plants were harvested and rated by the fresh weight of the aerial parts of the plants. The biomass increase has been measured as ratio of the fresh weight of the aerial parts of the respective transgenic plant and the non-transgenic wild type plant.
[00778] Procedure 2) Per transgenic construct 4-7 independent transgenic lines (=events) were tested (21 -28 plants per construct). Arabidopsis thaliana seeds were sown in pots containing a 1 :0.45:0.45 (v:v:v) mixture of nutrient depleted soil ("Einheitserde Typ 0", 30% clay, Tantau, Wansdorf Germany), sand and vermiculite. Dependent on the nutrient-content of each batch of nutrient-depleted soil, macronutrients, except nitrogen, were added to the soil-mixture to obtain a nutrient-content in the pre-fertilized soil comparable to fully fertilized soil. Nitrogen was added to a content of about 15% compared to fully fertilized soil. The median concentration of macronutrients in fully fertilized and nitrogen-depleted soil is stated in the following table.
Figure imgf000209_0001
[00779] Germination was induced by a four day period at 4°C, in the dark. Subsequently the plants were grown under standard growth conditions (photoperiod of 16 h light and 8 h dark, 20 °C, 60% relative humidity, and a photon flux density of 200 μΕ). The plants were grown and cultured, inter alia they were watered with de-ionized water every second day. After 9 to 10 days the plants were individualized. After a total time of 28 to 31 days the plants were harvested and rated by the fresh weight of the aerial parts of the plants. The biomass increase has been measured as ratio of the fresh weight of the aerial parts of the respective transgenic plant and the non-transgenic wild type plant.
[00780] -Procedure 3. For screening of transgenic plants a specific culture facility was used. For high-throughput purposes plants were screened for biomass production on agar plates with limited supply of nitrogen (adapted from Estelle and Somerville, 1987). This screening pipeline consists of two levels. Transgenic lines were subjected to subsequent level if biomass production was significantly improved in comparison to wild type plants. With each level number of replicates and statistical stringency was increased.
[00781] For the sowing, the seeds were removed from the Eppendorf tubes with the aid of a toothpick and transferred onto the above-mentioned agar plates, with limited supply of nitrogen (0.05 mM KNO3). In total, approximately 15-30 seeds were distributed horizontally on each plate (12 x 12 cm).
[00782] After the seeds have been sown, plates were subjected to stratification for 2-4 days in the dark at 4°C. After the stratification, the test plants were grown for 22 to 25 days at a 16-h-light, 8-h-dark rhythm at 20°C, an atmospheric humidity of 60% and a CO2 con- centration of approximately 400 ppm. The light sources used generate a light resembling the solar color spectrum with a light intensity of approximately 100 μΕ. After 10 to 1 1 days the plants were individualized. Improved growth under nitrogen limited conditions was assessed by biomass production of shoots and roots of transgenic plants in comparison to wild type control plants after 20-25 days growth.
[00783] Transgenic lines showing a significant improved biomass production in comparison to wild type plants were subjected to following experiment of the subsequent level on soil as described in procedure 1 , however, 3-6 lines per construct were tested (up to 60 plants per construct).
[00784] Biomass production of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana grown under limited nitrogen supply is shown inTable Villa: Biomass production was measured by weighing plant rosettes. Biomass increase was calculated as ratio of median weight for transgenic plants compared to median weight of wild type control plants from the same experiment. The biomass increase of transgenic constructs is given (significance value < 0.21 and biomass in- crease > 5% (ratio > 1.05))
Table Vlll-A ( nitrogen use efficency )
SeqID Target ORF Biomass Increase
63 cytoplasmic AT1 G06620_modifie 1.49
d
384 cytoplasmic AT1 G06680.1 1.37
504 cytoplasmic AT1 G14130.1 1.28
607 cytoplasmic AT1 G20810.1_modifi 1.28
ed
641 cytoplasmic AT1 G53885 1.33
672 cytoplasmic AT2G38730.1 1.19
1551 cytoplasmic AT3G01 150.1_trunca 1.17
ted
1628 cytoplasmic AT5G47440_modifie 1.56
d
1709 plastidic B1208 1.27
2226 plastidic B4214 1.15
2457 cytoplasmic CDS5293_modified 1.25
3463 cytoplasmic CDS5305 1.13 3794 cytoplasmic CDS5397 1.35
4630 cytoplasmic TTC1 186 1.36
5042 cytoplasmic YKL124W 1.29
5069 cytoplasmic YNL093W 1.66
5492 cytoplasmic ZM_7266_BQ538406 1.10
_CORN_LOFI_344_7 30_B
5838 cytoplasmic AT1 G29250.1 1.06
5982 cytoplasmic AT1 G55920.1 1.15
6494 cytoplasmic AT3G09480 1.20
7364 cytoplasmic AT4G01870 1.17
7434 cytoplasmic AT4G11890 1.13
7513 cytoplasmic AT5G07310 1.33
7545 cytoplasmic CDS5422 1.14
7721 cytoplasmic AT1 G03905.1 1.24
8287 cytoplasmic AT4G22240.1 1.12
7864 cytoplasmic AT1 G09350.1 1.17
8064 cytoplasmic AT1 G30135.1 1.57
8104 cytoplasmic AT1 G35680.1 1.60
8152 cytoplasmic AT2G42540.1 1.12
8206 cytoplasmic AT3G02990.1 1.15
8408 cytoplasmic At5g37670.1 1.17
8842 cytoplasmic CDS5376 1.31
9854 cytoplasmic LOC_Os02g13560.1 1.77
9981 cytoplasmic YCR024C 1.17
10798 cytoplasmic AT1G05100_truncate 1.20 d
10838 cytoplasmic AT1 G09450 1.24
10880 cytoplasmic AT1G44760 1.21 10965 cytoplasmic AT1 G54050.1 1.16
1 1418 cytoplasmic AT2G27040 1.18
1 1752 cytoplasmic AT2G29490 1.18
12196 cytoplasmic AT2G35300 1.20
12316 cytoplasmic AT2G35930 1.16
12573 cytoplasmic AT3G04620 1.1 1
12668 cytoplasmic AT3G20960 1.34
13131 cytoplasmic AT3G61580.1 1.95
13276 cytoplasmic AT5G 13220 1.17
13436 cytoplasmic CDS5394 1.33
13477 cytoplasmic CDS5401_TRUNCA 1.23
TED
13551 cytoplasmic ZM06LC319_CORN_ 1.12
LOFI_151_2385_A
13245 cytoplasmic AT4G 15420.1 1.32
10753 cytoplasmic 60952769.R01.1 1.18
13309 cytoplasmic AT5G42380 1.33
10749 cytoplasmic 57972199.R01.1 1.14
13501 cytoplasmic OS02G44730 1.14
13102 cytoplasmic AT3G24515 1.17
[00785] EXAMPLE 1 H:
[00786] Plant Screening for growth under low temperature conditions
[00787] In a standard experiment soil was prepared as 3.5:1 (v/v) mixture of nutrient rich soil (GS90, Tantau, Wansdorf, Germany) and sand. Pots were filled with soil mixture and placed into trays. Water was added to the trays to let the soil mixture take up appropriate amount of water for the sowing procedure. The seeds for transgenic A. thaliana plants were sown in pots (6cm diameter). Stratification was established for a period of 3-4 days in the dark at 4°C-5°C. Germination of seeds and growth was initiated at a growth condition of 20°C, approx. 60% relative humidity, 16h photoperiod and illumination with fluorescent light at 150 - 200 pmol/m2s. BASTA selection was done at day 9 after sowing by spraying pots with plantlets from the top. Therefore, a 0.07% (v/v) solution of BASTA concentrate (183 g/l glufosinate-ammonium) in tap water was sprayed. The wild-type control plants were sprayed with tap water only (instead of spraying with BASTA dissolved in tap water) but were otherwise treated identically. Transgenic events and wildtype control plants were distributed randomly over the chamber. Watering was carried out every two days after covers were removed from the trays. Plants were individualized 12-13 days after sowing by removing the surplus of seedlings leaving one seedling in a pot. Cold (chilling to 11 °C-12°C) was applied 14-16 days after sowing until the end of the experiment. For measuring biomass performance, plant fresh weight was determined at harvest time (35-37 days after sowing) by cutting shoots and weighing them. Plants were in the stage prior to flowering and prior to growth of inflorescence when harvested. Transgenic plants were compared to the non- transgenic wild-type control plants harvested at the same day. Significance values for the statistical significance of the biomass changes were calculated by applying the 'student's' t test (parameters: two-sided, unequal variance).
[00788] Per transgenic construct up to 4 independent transgenic lines (=events) were tested (21 -28 plants per construct) and biomass performance was evaluated as described above.
[00789] Table Vlll-B (LT): Biomass production of transgenic A. thaliana after imposition of chilling stress.
Biomass production was measured by weighing plant rosettes. Biomass increase was calculated as ratio of average weight of transgenic plants compared to average weight of wild- type control plants from the same experiment. The mean biomass increase of transgenic constructs is given (significance value < 0.3 and biomass increase > 5% (ratio > 1.05)).
SeqID Target ORF Biomass Increase
607 cytoplasmic AT1 G20810.1_modifi 1.08
ed
641 cytoplasmic AT1 G53885 1.07
672 cytoplasmic AT2G38730.1 1.18
1628 cytoplasmic AT5G47440_modifie 1.07
d
1709 plastidic B1208 1.24
2226 plastidic B4214 1.09
3463 cytoplasmic CDS5305 1.09
4630 cytoplasmic TTC1 186 1.06
5492 cytoplasmic ZM_7266_BQ538406 1.09
_CORN_LOFI_344_7 30_B
5838 cytoplasmic AT1 G29250.1 1.20
5982 cytoplasmic AT1 G55920.1 1.22
7364 cytoplasmic AT4G01870 1.1 1
7434 cytoplasmic AT4G 1 1890 1.07
7513 cytoplasmic AT5G07310 1.31
7545 cytoplasmic CDS5422 1.13
8287 cytoplasmic AT4G22240.1 1.12
8064 cytoplasmic AT1 G30135.1 1.10
8104 cytoplasmic AT1 G35680.1 1.08
8408 cytoplasmic At5g37670.1 1.1 1
8842 cytoplasmic CDS5376 1.15
10880 cytoplasmic AT1 G44760 1.07
10965 cytoplasmic AT1G54050.1 1.15
12196 cytoplasmic AT2G35300 1.10
13131 cytoplasmic AT3G61580.1 1.08
13436 cytoplasmic CDS5394 1.12
13477 cytoplasmic CDS5401_TRUNCA 1.16
TED
13551 cytoplasmic ZM06LC319_CORN_ 1.14
LOFI_151_2385_A
13245 cytoplasmic AT4G 15420.1 1.25
[00790] EXAMPLE 11:
Plant screening for growth under cycling drought conditions
[00791] Plant screening for growth under cycling drought conditions can be performed for example as follows:
[00792] In the cycling drought assay repetitive stress is applied to plants without leading to desiccation. In a standard experiment soil can be prepared as 1 :1 (v/v) mixture of nutrient rich soil (GS90, Tantau, Wansdorf, Germany) and quarz sand. Pots (6cm diameter) are filled with this mixture and placed into trays. Water is added to the trays to let the soil mixture take up appropriate amount of water for the sowing procedure (day 1 ) and subse- quently seeds of transgenic A. thaliana plants and their wild-type controls are sown in pots. Then the filled tray is covered with a transparent lid and transferred into a precooled (4°C- 5°C) and darkened growth chamber. Stratification is established for a period of 3 days in the dark at 4°C-5°C or, alternatively, for 4 days in the dark at 4°C. Germination of seeds and growth is initiated at a growth condition of 20°C, 60% relative humidity, 16h photoperiod and illumination with fluorescent light at approximately 200pmol/m2s . Covers are removed 7-8 days after sowing. BASTA selection is done at day 10 or day 1 1 (9 or 10 days after sowing) by spraying pots with plantlets from the top. In the standard experiment, a 0.07% (v/v) solution of BASTA concentrate (183 g/l glufosinate-ammonium) in tap water is sprayed once or, alternatively, a 0.02% (v/v) solution of BASTA is sprayed three times. The wild-type control plants are sprayed with tap water only (instead of spraying with BASTA dissolved in tap water) but are otherwise treated identically. Plants are individualized 13-14 days after sowing by removing the surplus of seedlings and leaving one seedling in soil. Transgenic events and wild-type control plants are evenly distributed over the chamber.
[00793] The water supply throughout the experiment is limited and plants are subjected to cycles of drought and re-watering. Watering is carried out at day 1 (before sowing), day 14 or day 15, day 21 or day 22, and, finally, day 27 or day 28. For measuring biomass production, plant fresh weight is determined one day after the final watering (day 28 or day 29) by cutting shoots and weighing them. Besides weighing, phenotypic information can be added in case of plants that differ from the wild type control. Plants are in the stage prior to flowering and prior to growth of inflorescence when harvested. Significance values for the statistical significance of the biomass changes are calculated by applying the 'student's' t test (parameters: two-sided, unequal variance).
[00794] Up to five lines (events) per transgenic construct are tested in successive ex- perimental levels (up to 4). Only constructs that display positive performance are subjected to the next experimental level. Usually in the first level five plants per construct are tested and in the subsequent levels 30-60 plants are tested. Biomass performance is evaluated as described above. Data are shown for constructs that displayed increased biomass performance in at least two successive experimental levels.
[00795] Biomass production can be measured by weighing plant rosettes. Biomass increase is calculated as ratio of average weight for transgenic plants compared to average weight of wild type control plants from the same experiment. The mean biomass increase of transgenic constructs can be given for exmple with a significance value < 0.3 and biomass increase > 5% (ratio > 1.05)).
[00796] EXAMPLE 2:
Engineering Arabidopsis plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait by over-expressing, the yield- increasing, e.g. the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related protein encoding genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Synechocystis or Azotobacter vinelandii or Thermus thermophilus or E. coli using tissue- specific and/or stress inducible promoters.
[00797] Transgenic Arabidopsis plants can be created as in example 1 to express the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. yield increasing, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related protein encoding transgenes under the control of a tissue- specific and/or stress inducible promoter.
[00798] T2 generation plants are produced and are grown under stress conditions, preferably conditions of low temperature. Biomass production is determined after a total time of 29 to 30 days starting with the sowing. The transgenic Arabidopsis plant produces more biomass than non-transgenic control plants.
[00799] EXAMPLE 3:
Over-expression of the yield-increasing, e.g. the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related protein, e.g. stress related genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Synechocystis or Azotobacter vinelandii or Thermus thermophilus or E. coli provides tolerance of multiple abiotic stresses.
[00800] Plants that exhibit tolerance of one abiotic stress often exhibit tolerance of another environmental stress. This phenomenon of cross-tolerance is not understood at a mechanistic level (McKersie and Leshem, 1994). Nonetheless, it is reasonable to expect that plants exhibiting enhanced tolerance to low temperature, e.g. chilling temperatures and/or freezing temperatures, due to the expression of a transgene might also exhibit toler- ance to drought and/or salt and/or other abiotic stresses. In support of this hypothesis, the expression of several genes are up or down-regulated by multiple abiotic stress factors including low temperature, drought, salt, osmoticum, ABA, etc. (e.g. Hong et al., Plant Mol Biol 18, 663 (1992); Jagendorf and Takabe, Plant Physiol 127, 1827 (2001 )); Mizoguchi et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 93, 765 (1996); Zhu, Curr Opin Plant Biol 4, 401 (2001 )).
[00801] To determine salt tolerance, seeds of A. thaliana can be sterilized (100% bleach, 0.1 % TritonX for five minutes two times and rinsed five times with ddH20). Seeds were plated on non-selection media (1/2 MS, 0.6% phytagar, 0.5g/L MES, 1 % sucrose, 2 μg/ml benamyl). Seeds are allowed to germinate for approximately ten days. At the 4-5 leaf stage, transgenic plants were potted into 5.5 cm diameter pots and allowed to grow (22 °C, con- tinuous light) for approximately seven days, watering as needed. To begin the assay, two liters of 100 mM NaCI and 1/8 MS are added to the tray under the pots. To the tray containing the control plants, three liters of 1/8 MS are added. The concentrations of NaCI supple- mentation are increased stepwise by 50 mM every 4 days up to 200 mM. After the salt treatment with 200 mM, fresh and survival and biomass production of the plants is determined.
[00802] To determine drought tolerance, seeds of the transgenic and low temperature lines can be germinated and grown for approximately 10 days to the 4-5 leaf stage as above. The plants are then transferred to drought conditions and can be grown through the flowering and seed set stages of development. Photosynthesis can be measured using chlorophyll fluorescence as an indicator of photosynthetic fitness and integrity of the photo- systems. Survival and plant biomass production as an indicators for seed yield is deter- mined.
[00803] Plants that have tolerance to salinity or low temperature have higher survival rates and biomass production including seed yield and dry matter production than susceptible plants.
[00804] EXAMPLE 4:
Engineering alfalfa plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait, e.g. enhanced abiotic environmental stress tolerance and/or increased biomass production by over-expressing yield-increasing, e.g. the polypeptide according to the invention-coding, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Synechocystis or Azoto- bacter vinelandii or Thermus thermophilus or E. coli.
[00805] A regenerating clone of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) can be transformed using state of the art methods (e.g. McKersie et al., Plant Physiol 1 19, 839(1999)). Regeneration and transformation of alfalfa is genotype dependent and therefore a regenerating plant is required. Methods to obtain regenerating plants have been described. For example, these can be selected from the cultivar Rangelander (Agriculture Canada) or any other commercial alfalfa variety as described by Brown D.C.W. and Atanassov A. (Plant Cell Tissue Organ Culture 4, 1 1 1 (1985)). Alternatively, the RA3 variety (University of Wisconsin) is se- lected for use in tissue culture (Walker et al., Am. J. Bot. 65, 654 (1978)).
[00806] Petiole explants are cocultivated with an overnight culture of Agrobacterium tu- mefaciens C58C1 pMP90 (McKersie et al., Plant Physiol 1 19, 839(1999)) or LBA4404 containing a binary vector. Many different binary vector systems have been described for plant transformation (e.g. An G., in Agrobacterium Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology, Vol 44, pp 47-62, Gartland K.M.A. and Davey M.R. eds. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey). Many are based on the vector pBIN19 described by Bevan (Nucleic Acid Research. 12, 871 1 (1984)) that includes a plant gene expression cassette flanked by the left and right border sequences from the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. A plant gene expression cassette consists of at least two genes - a selection marker gene and a plant promoter regulating the transcription of the cDNA or genomic DNA of the trait gene. Various selection marker genes can be used including the Arabidopsis gene encoding a mutated acetohy- droxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patents 5,7673,666 and 6,225,105). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene that provides constitutive, developmental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (GenBank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) is used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene.
[00807] The explants are cocultivated for 3 days in the dark on SH induction medium containing 288 mg/ L Pro, 53 mg/ L thioproline, 4.35 g/ L K2S04, and 100 μιη acetosyringi- none. The explants are washed in half-strength Murashige-Skoog medium (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) and plated on the same SH induction medium without acetosyringinone but with a suitable selection agent and suitable antibiotic to inhibit Agrobacterium growth. After several weeks, somatic embryos are transferred to BOi2Y development medium containing no growth regulators, no antibiotics, and 50 g/ L sucrose. Somatic embryos are subsequently germinated on half-strength Murashige-Skoog medium. Rooted seedlings are transplanted into pots and grown in a greenhouse.
[00808] T1 or T2 generation plants are produced and subjected to low temperature ex- periments, e.g. as described above in example 1. For the assessment of yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, biomass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield is compared to plants lacking the transgene, e.g. corresponding non- transgenic wild type plants.
[00809] EXAMPLE 5:
Engineering ryegrass plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait e.g. enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over- expressing yield-increasing, e.g. the polypeptide according to the invention-coding, e.g. tolerance to low temperature related genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Azotobacter vinelandii or Thermus thermophilus or Synechocystis or E. coli
[00810] Seeds of several different ryegrass varieties may be used as explant sources for transformation, including the commercial variety Gunne available from Svalof Weibull seed company or the variety Affinity. Seeds are surface-sterilized sequentially with 1 % Tween-20 for 1 minute, 100 % bleach for 60 minutes, 3 rinses with 5 minutes each with deionized and distilled H20, and then germinated for 3-4 days on moist, sterile filter paper in the dark. Seedlings are further sterilized for 1 minute with 1 % Tween-20, 5 minutes with 75% bleach, and rinsed 3 times with dd H2O, 5 min each.
[00811] Surface-sterilized seeds are placed on the callus induction medium containing Murashige and Skoog basal salts and vitamins, 20 g/L sucrose, 150 mg/L asparagine, 500 mg/L casein hydrolysate, 3 g/L Phytagel, 10 mg/L BAP, and 5 mg/L dicamba. Plates are incubated in the dark at 25°C for 4 weeks for seed germination and embryogenic callus induction.
[00812] After 4 weeks on the callus induction medium, the shoots and roots of the seedlings are trimmed away, the callus is transferred to fresh media, maintained in culture for another 4 weeks, and then transferred to MSO medium in light for 2 weeks. Several pieces of callus (1 1-17 weeks old) are either strained through a 10 mesh sieve and put onto callus induction medium, or cultured in 100 ml of liquid ryegrass callus induction media (same medium as for callus induction with agar) in a 250 ml flask. The flask is wrapped in foil and shaken at 175 rpm in the dark at 23°C for 1 week. Sieving the liquid culture with a 40-mesh sieve collected the cells. The fraction collected on the sieve is plated and cultured on solid ryegrass callus induction medium for 1 week in the dark at 25°C. The callus is then transferred to and cultured on MS medium containing 1 % sucrose for 2 weeks.
[00813] Transformation can be accomplished with either Agrobacterium of with particle bombardment methods. An expression vector is created containing a constitutive plant promoter and the cDNA of the gene in a pUC vector. The plasmid DNA is prepared from E. coli cells using with Qiagen kit according to manufacturer's instruction. Approximately 2 g of embryogenic callus is spread in the center of a sterile filter paper in a Petri dish. An aliquot of liquid MSO with 10 g/L sucrose is added to the filter paper. Gold particles (1.0 μιη in size) are coated with plasmid DNA according to method of Sanford et al., 1993 and delivered to the embryogenic callus with the following parameters: 500 g particles and 2 g DNA per shot, 1300 psi and a target distance of 8.5 cm from stopping plate to plate of callus and 1 shot per plate of callus.
[00814] After the bombardment, calli are transferred back to the fresh callus development medium and maintained in the dark at room temperature for a 1 -week period. The callus is then transferred to growth conditions in the light at 25°C to initiate embryo differentiation with the appropriate selection agent, e.g. 250 nM Arsenal, 5 mg/L PPT or 50 mg/L kanamycin. Shoots resistant to the selection agent are appearing and once rotted are transferred to soil.
[00815] Samples of the primary transgenic plants (TO) are analyzed by PCR to confirm the presence of T-DNA. These results are confirmed by Southern hybridization in which DNA is electrophoresed on a 1 % agarose gel and transferred to a positively charged nylon membrane (Roche Diagnostics). The PCR DIG Probe Synthesis Kit (Roche Diagnostics) is used to prepare a digoxigenin-labelled probe by PCR, and used as recommended by the manufacturer.
[00816] Transgenic TO ryegrass plants can be propagated vegetatively by excising tillers. The transplanted tillers are maintained in the greenhouse for 2 months until well estab- lished. The shoots are defoliated and allowed to grow for 2 weeks.
[00817] T1 or T2 generation plants are produced and subjected to low temperature experiments, e.g. as described above in example 1. For the assessment of t yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, biomass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield is compared to plants lacking the transgene, e.g. corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00818] EXAMPLE 6:
Engineering soybean plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use effi- ciency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait e.g. enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over- expressing yield-increasing, e.g. the polypeptide according to the invention-coding, e.g. tolerance to low temperature related genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or
Synechocystis or Azotobacter vinelandii or Thermus thermophilus or E. coli
[00819] Soybean can be transformed according to the following modification of the method described in the Texas A&M patent US 5,164,310. Several commercial soybean varieties are amenable to transformation by this method. The cultivar Jack (available from the Illinois Seed Foundation) is a commonly used for transformation. Seeds are sterilized by immersion in 70% (v/v) ethanol for 6 min and in 25 % commercial bleach (NaOCI) supple- mented with 0.1 % (v/v) Tween for 20 min, followed by rinsing 4 times with sterile double distilled water. Seven-day seedlings are propagated by removing the radicle, hypocotyl and one cotyledon from each seedling. Then, the epicotyl with one cotyledon is transferred to fresh germination media in petri dishes and incubated at 25 °C under a 16-h photoperiod (approx. 100 pmol/m2s) for three weeks. Axillary nodes (approx. 4 mm in length) were cut from 3 - 4 week-old plants. Axillary nodes are excised and incubated in Agrobacterium LBA4404 culture.
[00820] Many different binary vector systems have been described for plant transformation (e.g. An G., in Agrobacterium Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology Vol. 44, p. 47- 62, Gartland K.M.A. and Davey M.R. eds. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey). Many are based on the vector pBIN19 described by Bevan (Nucleic Acid Research. 12, 871 1 (1984)) that includes a plant gene expression cassette flanked by the left and right border sequences from the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. A plant gene expression cas- sette consists of at least two genes - a selection marker gene and a plant promoter regulating the transcription of the cDNA or genomic DNA of the trait gene. Various selection marker genes can be used including the Arabidopsis gene encoding a mutated acetohy- droxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patents 5,7673,666 and 6,225,105). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene to provide constitutive, developmental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (GenBank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) can be used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene.
[00821] After the co-cultivation treatment, the explants are washed and transferred to selection media supplemented with 500 mg/L timentin. Shoots are excised and placed on a shoot elongation medium. Shoots longer than 1 cm are placed on rooting medium for two to four weeks prior to transplanting to soil.
[00822] The primary transgenic plants (TO) are analyzed by PCR to confirm the presence of T-DNA. These results are confirmed by Southern hybridization in which DNA is electro- phoresed on a 1 % agarose gel and transferred to a positively charged nylon membrane (Roche Diagnostics). The PCR DIG Probe Synthesis Kit (Roche Diagnostics) is used to prepare a digoxigenin-labelled probe by PCR, and used as recommended by the manufacturer.
[00823] T1 or T2 generation plants are produced and subjected to low temperature ex- periments, e.g. as described above in example 1. For the assessment of yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, biomass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield is compared to plants lacking the transgene, e.g. corresponding non- transgenic wild type plants.
[00824] EXAMPLE 7:
[00825] Engineering Rapeseed/Canola plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait, e.g. enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass pro- duction by over-expressing yield-increasing, e.g. the polypeptide according to the invention- coding, e.g. tolerance to low temperature related genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Azotobacter vinelandii or Thermus thermophilus or Synechocystis or E. coli
[00826] Cotyledonary petioles and hypocotyls of 5-6 day-old young seedlings can be used as explants for tissue culture and transformed according to Babic et al. (Plant Cell Rep 17, 183 (1998)). The commercial cultivar Westar (Agriculture Canada) is the standard variety used for transformation, but other varieties can be used.
[00827] Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404 containing a binary vector can be used for canola transformation. Many different binary vector systems have been described for plant transformation (e.g. An G., in Agrobacterium Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology Vol. 44, p. 47-62, Gartland K.M.A. and Davey M.R. eds. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey). Many are based on the vector pBIN19 described by Bevan (Nucleic Acid Research. 12, 871 1 (1984)) that includes a plant gene expression cassette flanked by the left and right border sequences from the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. A plant gene expression cassette consists of at least two genes - a selection marker gene and a plant promoter regulating the transcription of the cDNA or genomic DNA of the trait gene. Various selection marker genes can be used including the Arabidopsis gene encoding a mutated acetohy- droxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patents 5,7673,666 and 6,225,105). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene to provide constitutive, developmental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (GenBank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) can be used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene.
[00828] Canola seeds are surface-sterilized in 70% ethanol for 2 min., and then in 30% Clorox with a drop of Tween-20 for 10 min, followed by three rinses with sterilized distilled water. Seeds are then germinated in vitro 5 days on half strength MS medium without hormones, 1 % sucrose, 0.7% Phytagar at 23°C, 16 h light. The cotyledon petiole explants with the cotyledon attached are excised from the in vitro seedlings, and inoculated with Agrobac- terium by dipping the cut end of the petiole explant into the bacterial suspension. The ex- plants are then cultured for 2 days on MSBAP-3 medium containing 3 mg/L BAP, 3 % sucrose, 0.7 % Phytagar at 23°C, 16 h light. After two days of co-cultivation with Agrobacterium, the petiole explants are transferred to MSBAP-3 medium containing 3 mg/L BAP, cefotaxime, carbenicillin, or timentin (300 mg/L) for 7 days, and then cultured on MSBAP-3 medium with cefotaxime, carbenicillin, or timentin and selection agent until shoot regeneration. When the shoots were 5 - 10 mm in length, they are cut and transferred to shoot elongation medium (MSBAP-0.5, containing 0.5 mg/L BAP). Shoots of about 2 cm in length are transferred to the rooting medium (MSO) for root induction.
[00829] Samples of the primary transgenic plants (TO) are analyzed by PCR to confirm the presence of T-DNA. These results are confirmed by Southern hybridization in which DNA is electrophoresed on a 1 % agarose gel and transferred to a positively charged nylon membrane (Roche Diagnostics). The PCR DIG Probe Synthesis Kit (Roche Diagnostics) is used to prepare a digoxigenin-labelled probe by PCR, and used as recommended by the manufacturer.
T1 or T2 generation plants are produced and subjected to low temperature experiments, e.g. as described above in example 1. For the assessment of yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, biomass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield is compared to plants lacking the transgene, e.g. corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00830] EXAMPLE 8:
Engineering corn plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for ex- ample enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait, e.g. enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over- expressing yield-increasing, e.g. the polypeptide according to the invention-coding, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Synechocystis or Azotobacter vinelandii or Thermus thermophilus or E. coli
[00831] Transformation of maize (Zea Mays L.) can be performed with a modification of the method described by Ishida et al. (Nature Biotech 14745 (1996)). Transformation is genotype-dependent in corn and only specific genotypes are amenable to transformation and regeneration. The inbred line A188 (University of Minnesota) or hybrids with A188 as a parent are good sources of donor material for transformation (Fromm et al. Biotech 8, 833 (1990)), but other genotypes can be used successfully as well. Ears are harvested from corn plants at approximately 1 1 days after pollination (DAP) when the length of immature embryos is about 1 to 1.2 mm. Immature embryos are co-cultivated with Agrobacterium tu- mefaciens that carry "super binary" vectors and transgenic plants are recovered through organogenesis. The super binary vector system of Japan Tobacco is described in WO patents WO 94/00977 and WO 95/06722. Vectors were constructed as described. Various selection marker genes can be used including the maize gene encoding a mutated acetohy- droxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patent 6,025,541 ). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene to provide constitutive, developmental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (GenBank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) was used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene.
[00832] Excised embryos are grown on callus induction medium, then maize regenera- tion medium, containing imidazolinone as a selection agent. The Petri plates are incubated in the light at 25 °C for 2-3 weeks, or until shoots develop. The green shoots are transferred from each embryo to maize rooting medium and incubated at 25°C for 2-3 weeks, until roots develop. The rooted shoots are transplanted to soil in the greenhouse. T1 seeds are produced from plants that exhibit tolerance to the imidazolinone herbicides and which are PCR positive for the transgenes.
[00833] The T1 transgenic plants are then evaluated for their enhanced stress tolerance, like tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production according to the method described in Example 1. The T1 generation of single locus insertions of the T-DNA will segregate for the transgene in a 3:1 ratio. Those progeny containing one or two copies of the transgene are tolerant regarding the imidazolinone herbicide, and exhibit an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example an enhancement of stress tolerance, like tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production than those progeny lacking the transgenes.
[00834] T1 or T2 generation plants are produced and subjected to low temperature experiments, e.g. as described above in example 2. For the assessment of yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, biomass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter produc- tion and/or seed yield is compared to e.g. corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00835] Homozygous T2 plants exhibited similar phenotypes. Hybrid plants (F1 progeny) of homozygous transgenic plants and non-transgenic plants also exhibited increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait, e.g. enhanced tolerance to low temperature.
[00836] EXAMPLE 9:
Engineering wheat plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example enhanced tolerance to abiotic environmental stress, for example an increased drought tolerance and/or low temperature tolerance and/or an increased nutrient use efficiency, and/or another mentioned yield-related trait, e.g. enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over- expressing yield-increasing, e.g. the polypeptide according to the invention-coding, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Synechocystis or Azotobacter vinelandii or Thermus thermophilus or E. coli
[00837] Transformation of wheat can be performed with the method described by Ishida et al. (Nature Biotech. 14745 (1996)). The cultivar Bobwhite (available from CYMMIT, Mexico) is commonly used in transformation. Immature embryos are co-cultivated with Agrobac- terium tumefaciens that carry "super binary" vectors, and transgenic plants are recovered through organogenesis. The super binary vector system of Japan Tobacco is described in WO patents WO 94/00977 and WO 95/06722. Vectors were constructed as described. Various selection marker genes can be used including the maize gene encoding a mutated acetohydroxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patent 6,025,541 ). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene to provide constitutive, developmental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (Gen- Bank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) was used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene. [00838] After incubation with Agrobacterium, the embryos are grown on callus induction medium, then regeneration medium, containing imidazolinone as a selection agent. The Petri plates are incubated in the light at 25 °C for 2-3 weeks, or until shoots develop. The green shoots are transferred from each embryo to rooting medium and incubated at 25 °C for 2-3 weeks, until roots develop. The rooted shoots are transplanted to soil in the greenhouse. T1 seeds are produced from plants that exhibit tolerance to the imidazolinone herbicides and which are PCR positive for the transgenes.
[00839] The T1 transgenic plants are then evaluated for their enhanced tolerance to low temperature and/or increased biomass production according to the method described in example 2. The T1 generation of single locus insertions of the T-DNA will segregate for the transgene in a 3:1 ratio. Those progeny containing one or two copies of the transgene are tolerant regarding the imidazolinone herbicide, and exhibit an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example an enhanced tolerance to low temperature and/or increased biomass production compared to the progeny lacking the transgenes. Homozy- gous T2 plants exhibit similar phenotypes.
[00840] For the assessment of yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, biomass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield can be compared to e.g. corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants. For example, plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with an increased nutrient use efficiency or an increased intrinsic yield, and e.g. with higher tolerance to low temperature may show increased biomass production and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield under low temperature when compared to plants lacking the transgene, e.g. to corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00841] EXAMPLE 10:
Identification of Identical and Heterologous Genes
[00842] Gene sequences can be used to identify identical or heterologous genes from cDNA or genomic libraries. Identical genes (e. g. full-length cDNA clones) can be isolated via nucleic acid hybridization using for example cDNA libraries. Depending on the abundance of the gene of interest, 100,000 up to 1 ,000,000 recombinant bacteriophages are plated and transferred to nylon membranes. After denaturation with alkali, DNA is immobilized on the membrane by e. g. UV cross linking. Hybridization is carried out at high stringency conditions. In aqueous solution, hybridization and washing is performed at an ionic strength of 1 M NaCI and a temperature of 68°C. Hybridization probes are generated by e.g. radioactive (32P) nick transcription labeling (High Prime, Roche, Mannheim, Germany). Signals are detected by autoradiography.
[00843] Partially identical or heterologous genes that are related but not identical can be identified in a manner analogous to the above-described procedure using low stringency hybridization and washing conditions. For aqueous hybridization, the ionic strength is normally kept at 1 M NaCI while the temperature is progressively lowered from 68 to 42°C.
[00844] Isolation of gene sequences with homology (or sequence identity/similarity) only in a distinct domain of (for example 10-20 amino acids) can be carried out by using syn- thetic radio labeled oligonucleotide probes. Radiolabeled oligonucleotides are prepared by phosphorylation of the 5-prime end of two complementary oligonucleotides with T4 polynucleotide kinase. The complementary oligonucleotides are annealed and ligated to form concatemers. The double stranded concatemers are than radiolabeled by, for example, nick transcription. Hybridization is normally performed at low stringency conditions using high oligonucleotide concentrations.
[00845] Oligonucleotide hybridization solution:
6 x SSC
0.01 M sodium phosphate
1 mM EDTA (pH 8)
0.5 % SDS
100 g/ml denatured salmon sperm DNA
0.1 % nonfat dried milk
During hybridization, temperature is lowered stepwise to 5-10°C below the estimated oligonucleotide Tm or down to room temperature followed by washing steps and autoradiogra- phy. Washing is performed with low stringency such as 3 washing steps using 4 x SSC.
Further details are described by Sambrook J. et al., 1989, "Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual," Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press or Ausubel F.M. et al., 1994, "Current Protocols in Molecular Biology," John Wiley & Sons.
[00846] EXAMPLE 1 1 :
Identification of Identical Genes by Screening Expression Libraries with Antibodies
[00847] c-DNA clones can be used to produce recombinant polypeptide for example in E. coli (e.g. Qiagen QIAexpress pQE system). Recombinant polypeptides are then normally affinity purified via Ni-NTA affinity chromatography (Qiagen). Recombinant polypeptides are then used to produce specific antibodies for example by using standard techniques for rab- bit immunization. Antibodies are affinity purified using a Ni-NTA column saturated with the recombinant antigen as described by Gu et al., BioTechniques 17, 257 (1994). The antibody can than be used to screen expression cDNA libraries to identify identical or heterologous genes via an immunological screening (Sambrook, J. et al., 1989, "Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual," Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press or Ausubel, F.M. et al., 1994, "Current Protocols in Molecular Biology", John Wiley & Sons).
[00848] EXAMPLE 12:
In vivo Mutagenesis [00849] In vivo mutagenesis of microorganisms can be performed by passage of plasmid (or other vector) DNA through E. coil or other microorganisms (e.g. Bacillus spp. or yeasts such as S. cerevisiae) which are impaired in their capabilities to maintain the integrity of their genetic information. Typical mutator strains have mutations in the genes for the DNA repair system (e.g., mutHLS, mutD, mutT, etc.; for reference, see Rupp W.D., DNA repair mechanisms, in: E. coll and Salmonella, p. 2277-2294, ASM, 1996, Washington.) Such strains are well known to those skilled in the art. The use of such strains is illustrated, for example, in Greener A. and Callahan M., Strategies 7, 32 (1994). Transfer of mutated DNA molecules into plants is preferably done after selection and testing in microorganisms. Transgenic plants are generated according to various examples within the exemplification of this document.
[00850] EXAMPLE 13:
Engineering Arabidopsis plants with increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example an enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or in- creased biomass production by over-expressing the polypeptide according to the invention- encoding genes for example from A. thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Physcomitrella patens, or Populus trichocarpa or Oryza sativa using tissue-specific or stress-inducible promoters.
[00851] Transgenic Arabidopsis plants over-expressing genes encoding the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related protein encoding genes, from for example Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays and Oryza sativa can be created as described in example 1 to express the polypeptide according to the invention-encoding transgenes under the control of a tissue-specific or stress-inducible promoter. T2 generation plants are produced and grown under stress or non-stress condi- tions, e.g. low temperature conditions. Plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. low temperature, or with an increased nutrient use efficiency or an increased intrinsic yield, show increased biomass production and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield under low temperature conditions when compared to plants lacking the transgene, e.g. to corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00852] EXAMPLE 14:
Engineering alfalfa plants with increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example an enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over-expressing genes encoding the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes for example from A. thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Physcomitrella patens or Populus trichocarpa or Oryza sativa for example. [00853] A regenerating clone of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) can be transformed using the method of McKersie et al., (Plant Physiol. 1 19, 839 (1999)). Regeneration and transformation of alfalfa is genotype dependent and therefore a regenerating plant is required. Methods to obtain regenerating plants have been described. For example, these can be selected from the cultivar Rangelander (Agriculture Canada) or any other commercial alfalfa variety as described by Brown and Atanassov (Plant Cell Tissue Organ Culture 4, 1 1 1 (1985)). Alternatively, the RA3 variety (University of Wisconsin) has been selected for use in tissue culture (Walker et al., Am. J. Bot. 65, 54 (1978)).
[00854] Petiole explants are cocultivated with an overnight culture of Agrobacterium tu- mefaciens C58C1 pMP90 (McKersie et al., Plant Physiol 1 19, 839 (1999)) or LBA4404 containing a binary vector. Many different binary vector systems have been described for plant transformation (e.g. An G., in Agrobacterium Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology Vol. 44, p. 47-62, Gartland K.M.A. and Davey M.R. eds. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey). Many are based on the vector pBIN19 described by Bevan (Nucleic Acid Research. 12, 871 1 (1984)) that includes a plant gene expression cassette flanked by the left and right border sequences from the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. A plant gene expression cassette consists of at least two genes - a selection marker gene and a plant promoter regulating the transcription of the cDNA or genomic DNA of the trait gene. Various selection marker genes can be used including the Arabidopsis gene encoding a mutated acetohy- droxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patents 5,7673,666 and 6,225,105). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene that provides constitutive, developmental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (GenBank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) was used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene.
[00855] The explants are cocultivated for 3 days in the dark on SH induction medium containing 288 mg/L Pro, 53 mg/L thioproline, 4.35 g/L K2S04, and 100 μιη acetosyringinone. The explants were washed in half-strength Murashige-Skoog medium (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) and plated on the same SH induction medium without acetosyringinone but with a suitable selection agent and suitable antibiotic to inhibit Agrobacterium growth. After several weeks, somatic embryos are transferred to BOi2Y development medium containing no growth regulators, no antibiotics, and 50 g/L sucrose. Somatic embryos are subsequently germinated on half-strength Murashige-Skoog medium. Rooted seedlings are transplanted into pots and grown in a greenhouse.
[00856] The TO transgenic plants are propagated by node cuttings and rooted in Turface growth medium. T1 or T2 generation plants are produced and subjected to experiments comprising stress or non-stress conditions, e.g. low temperature conditions as described in previous examples. [00857] For the assessment of yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, bio- mass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield is compared to e.g. corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00858] For example, plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with an increased nutrient use efficiency or an increased intrinsic yield, and e.g. with higher tolerance to low temperature may show increased bio- mass production and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield under low temperature when compared to plants lacking the transgene, e.g. to corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00859] EXAMPLE 15:
Engineering ryegrass plants with increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example an enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over-expressing genes encoding the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes for example from A. thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Physcomitrella patens or Populus trichocarpa or Oryza sativa
[00860] Seeds of several different ryegrass varieties may be used as explant sources for transformation, including the commercial variety Gunne available from Svalof Weibull seed company or the variety Affinity. Seeds are surface-sterilized sequentially with 1 % Tween-20 for 1 minute, 100 % bleach for 60 minutes, 3 rinses of 5 minutes each with deionized and distilled Η20, and then germinated for 3-4 days on moist, sterile filter paper in the dark. Seedlings are further sterilized for 1 minute with 1 % Tween-20, 5 minutes with 75% bleach, and rinsed 3 times with double destilled H2O, 5 min each.
[00861] Surface-sterilized seeds are placed on the callus induction medium containing Murashige and Skoog basal salts and vitamins, 20 g/L sucrose, 150 mg/L asparagine, 500 mg/L casein hydrolysate, 3 g/L Phytagel, 10 mg/L BAP, and 5 mg/L dicamba. Plates are incubated in the dark at 25°C for 4 weeks for seed germination and embryogenic callus induction.
[00862] After 4 weeks on the callus induction medium, the shoots and roots of the seed- lings are trimmed away, the callus is transferred to fresh media, maintained in culture for another 4 weeks, and then transferred to MSO medium in light for 2 weeks. Several pieces of callus (1 1-17 weeks old) are either strained through a 10 mesh sieve and put onto callus induction medium, or cultured in 100 ml of liquid ryegrass callus induction media (same medium as for callus induction with agar) in a 250 ml flask. The flask is wrapped in foil and shaken at 175 rpm in the dark at 23°C for 1 week. Sieving the liquid culture with a 40-mesh sieve collect the cells. The fraction collected on the sieve is plated and cultured on solid ryegrass callus induction medium for 1 week in the dark at 25°C. The callus is then trans- ferred to and cultured on MS medium containing 1 % sucrose for 2 weeks.
[00863] Transformation can be accomplished with either Agrobacterium of with particle bombardment methods. An expression vector is created containing a constitutive plant promoter and the cDNA of the gene in a pUC vector. The plasmid DNA is prepared from E. coli cells using with Qiagen kit according to manufacturer's instruction. Approximately 2 g of embryogenic callus is spread in the center of a sterile filter paper in a Petri dish. An aliquot of liquid MSO with 10 g/l sucrose is added to the filter paper. Gold particles (1.0 μιη in size) are coated with plasmid DNA according to method of Sanford et al., 1993 and delivered to the embryogenic callus with the following parameters: 500 g particles and 2 g DNA per shot, 1300 psi and a target distance of 8.5 cm from stopping plate to plate of callus and 1 shot per plate of callus.
[00864] After the bombardment, calli are transferred back to the fresh callus development medium and maintained in the dark at room temperature for a 1 -week period. The callus is then transferred to growth conditions in the light at 25°C to initiate embryo differen- tiation with the appropriate selection agent, e.g. 250 nM Arsenal, 5 mg/L PPT or 50 mg/L kanamycin. Shoots resistant to the selection agent appeared and once rooted are transferred to soil.
[00865] Samples of the primary transgenic plants (TO) are analyzed by PCR to confirm the presence of T-DNA. These results are confirmed by Southern hybridization in which DNA is electrophoresed on a 1 % agarose gel and transferred to a positively charged nylon membrane (Roche Diagnostics). The PCR DIG Probe Synthesis Kit (Roche Diagnostics) is used to prepare a digoxigenin-labelled probe by PCR, and used as recommended by the manufacturer.
[00866] Transgenic TO ryegrass plants are propagated vegetatively by excising tillers. The transplanted tillers are maintained in the greenhouse for 2 months until well established. T1 or T2 generation plants are produced and subjected to stress or non-stress conditions, e.g. low temperature experiments, e.g. as described above in example 1.
[00867] For the assessment of yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, bio- mass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield is compared to e.g. corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants. For example, plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with an increased nutrient use efficiency or an increased intrinsic yield, and e.g. with higher tolerance to low temperature may show increased biomass production and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield under low temperature when compared to plants lacking the transgene, e.g. to corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00868] EXAMPLE 16:
Engineering soybean plants with increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example an enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over-expressing genes encoding the the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes, for example from A. thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Physcomitrella pat- ens or Populus trichocarpa or Oryza sativa
[00869] Soybean can be transformed according to the following modification of the method described in the Texas A&M patent US 5,164,310. Several commercial soybean varieties are amenable to transformation by this method. The cultivar Jack (available from the Illinois Seed Foundation) is a commonly used for transformation. Seeds are sterilized by immersion in 70% (v/v) ethanol for 6 min and in 25 % commercial bleach (NaOCI) supplemented with 0.1 % (v/v) Tween for 20 min, followed by rinsing 4 times with sterile double distilled water. Seven-day old seedlings are propagated by removing the radicle, hypocotyl and one cotyledon from each seedling. Then, the epicotyl with one cotyledon is transferred to fresh germination media in petri dishes and incubated at 25 °C under a 16 h photoperiod (approx. 100 μιηοΙ/ms) for three weeks. Axillary nodes (approx. 4 mm in length) are cut from 3 - 4 week-old plants. Axillary nodes are excised and incubated in Agrobacterium LBA4404 culture.
[00870] Many different binary vector systems have been described for plant transformation (e.g. An G., in Agrobacterium Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology Vol 44, p. 47-62, Gartland K.M.A. and Davey M.R. eds. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey). Many are based on the vector pBIN19 described by Bevan (Nucleic Acid Research. 12, 871 1 (1984)) that includes a plant gene expression cassette flanked by the left and right border sequences from the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. A plant gene expression cassette consists of at least two genes - a selection marker gene and a plant promoter regulat- ing the transcription of the cDNA or genomic DNA of the trait gene. Various selection marker genes can be used including the Arabidopsis gene encoding a mutated acetohy- droxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patents 5,7673,666 and 6,225,105). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene to provide constitutive, developmental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (GenBank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) is used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene.
[00871] After the co-cultivation treatment, the explants are washed and transferred to selection media supplemented with 500 mg/L timentin. Shoots are excised and placed on a shoot elongation medium. Shoots longer than 1 cm are placed on rooting medium for two to four weeks prior to transplanting to soil.
[00872] The primary transgenic plants (TO) are analyzed by PCR to confirm the presence of T-DNA. These results are confirmed by Southern hybridization in which DNA is electro- phoresed on a 1 % agarose gel and transferred to a positively charged nylon membrane (Roche Diagnostics). The PCR DIG Probe Synthesis Kit (Roche Diagnostics) is used to prepare a digoxigenin-labelled probe by PCR, and used as recommended by the manufacturer.
[00873] Soybean plants over-expressing genes encoding the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes from A. thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Oryza sativa, show increased yield, for example, have higher seed yields.
[00874] T1 or T2 generation plants are produced and subjected to stress and non-stress conditions, e.g. low temperature experiments, e.g. as described above in example 1.
[00875] For the assessment of yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, bio- mass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield is compared to e.g. corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants. For example, plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with an increased nutrient use efficiency or an increased intrinsic yield, and e.g. with higher tolerance to low temperature may show increased biomass production and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield under low temperature when compared to plants lacking the transgene, e.g. to corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00876] EXAMPLE 17:
Engineering rapeseed/canola plants with increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example an enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over-expressing genes encoding the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes for example from A. thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Physcomitrella patens or Populus trichocarpa or Oryza sativa
[00877] Cotyledonary petioles and hypocotyls of 5-6 day-old young seedlings can be used as explants for tissue culture and transformed according to Babic et al. (Plant Cell Rep 17, 183(1998)). The commercial cultivar Westar (Agriculture Canada) is the standard variety used for transformation, but other varieties can be used.
[00878] Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404 containing a binary vector can be used for canola transformation. Many different binary vector systems have been described for plant transformation (e.g. An G., in Agrobacterium Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology Vol. 44, p. 47-62, Gartland K.M.A. and Davey M.R. eds. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey). Many are based on the vector pBIN19 described by Bevan (Nucleic Acid Research. 12, 871 1 (1984)) that includes a plant gene expression cassette flanked by the left and right border sequences from the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. A plant gene expression cassette consists of at least two genes - a selection marker gene and a plant promoter regulating the transcription of the cDNA or genomic DNA of the trait gene. Various selection marker genes can be used including the Arabidopsis gene encoding a mutated acetohy- droxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patents 5,7673,666 and 6,225,105). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene to provide constitutive, develop- mental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (GenBank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) is used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene.
[00879] Canola seeds are surface-sterilized in 70% ethanol for 2 min., and then in 30% Clorox with a drop of Tween-20 for 10 min, followed by three rinses with sterilized distilled water. Seeds are then germinated in vitro 5 days on half strength MS medium without hormones, 1 % sucrose, 0.7% Phytagar at 23oC, 16 h light. The cotyledon petiole explants with the cotyledon attached are excised from the in vitro seedlings, and inoculated with Agrobac- terium by dipping the cut end of the petiole explant into the bacterial suspension. The ex- plants are then cultured for 2 days on MSBAP-3 medium containing 3 mg/L BAP, 3 % su- crose, 0.7 % Phytagar at 23°C, 16 h light. After two days of co-cultivation with Agrobacte- rium, the petiole explants are transferred to MSBAP-3 medium containing 3 mg/l BAP, cefotaxime, carbenicillin, or timentin (300 mg/L) for 7 days, and then cultured on MSBAP-3 medium with cefotaxime, carbenicillin, or timentin and selection agent until shoot regeneration. When the shoots are 5 - 10 mm in length, they are cut and transferred to shoot elongation medium (MSBAP-0.5, containing 0.5 mg/L BAP). Shoots of about 2 cm in length are transferred to the rooting medium (MSO) for root induction.
[00880] Samples of the primary transgenic plants (TO) are analyzed by PCR to confirm the presence of T-DNA. These results are confirmed by Southern hybridization in which DNA is electrophoresed on a 1 % agarose gel and transferred to a positively charged nylon membrane (Roche Diagnostics). The PCR DIG Probe Synthesis Kit (Roche Diagnostics) is used to prepare a digoxigenin-labelled probe by PCR, and used as recommended by the manufacturer.
[00881] The transgenic plants can then be evaluated for their increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. enhanced tolerance to low temperature and/or increased biomass production according to the method described in Example 2. It is found that transgenic rapeseed/canola over-expressing genes encoding the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes, from A. thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Oryza sativa show increased yield, for example show an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with enhanced tolerance to low temperature and/or increased biomass production compared to plants without the transgene, e.g. corresponding non-transgenic control plants. [00882] EXAMPLE 18:
Engineering corn plants with increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for example an enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over-expressing genes encoding the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. tolerance to low temperature related genes for example from A.
thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays Physcomitrella patens or Populus tricho- carpa or or Oryza sativa
[00883] Transformation of corn (Zea mays L.) can be performed with a modification of the method described by Ishida et al. (Nature Biotech 14745(1996)). Transformation is genotype-dependent in corn and only specific genotypes are amenable to transformation and regeneration. The inbred line A188 (University of Minnesota) or hybrids with A188 as a parent are good sources of donor material for transformation (Fromm et al. Biotech 8, 833 (1990), but other genotypes can be used successfully as well. Ears are harvested from corn plants at approximately 1 1 days after pollination (DAP) when the length of immature em- bryos is about 1 to 1 .2 mm. Immature embryos can be co-cultivated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens that carry "super binary" vectors and transgenic plants are recovered through organogenesis. The super binary vector system of Japan Tobacco is described in WO patents WO 94/00977 and WO 95/06722. Vectors are constructed as described. Various selection marker genes can be used including the corn gene encoding a mutated acetohy- droxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patent 6,025,541 ). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene to provide constitutive, developmental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (GenBank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) is used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene.
[00884] Excised embryos are grown on callus induction medium, then corn regeneration medium, containing imidazolinone as a selection agent. The Petri plates were incubated in the light at 25°C for 2-3 weeks, or until shoots develop. The green shoots from each embryo are transferred to corn rooting medium and incubated at 25°C for 2-3 weeks, until roots develop. The rooted shoots are transplanted to soil in the greenhouse. T1 seeds are produced from plants that exhibit tolerance to the imidazolinone herbicides and are PCR positive for the transgenes.
[00885] The T1 transgenic plants can then be evaluated for increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with enhanced tolerance to low temperature and/or increased biomass production according to the methods described in Example 2. The T1 generation of single locus insertions of the T-DNA will segregate for the transgene in a 1 :2:1 ratio. Those progeny containing one or two copies of the transgene (3/4 of the progeny) are tolerant regarding the imidazolinone herbicide, and exhibit an in- creased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with enhanced tolerance to low temperature and/or increased biomass production compared to those progeny lacking the transgenes. Tolerant plants have higher seed yields. Homozygous T2 plants exhibited similar phenotypes. Hybrid plants (F1 progeny) of homozygous transgenic plants and non-transgenic plants also exhibited an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with enhanced tolerance to low temperature and/or increased biomass production.
[00886] EXAMPLE 19:
Engineering wheat plants with increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, for ex- ample an enhanced stress tolerance, preferably tolerance to low temperature, and/or increased biomass production by over-expressing genes encoding the polypeptide according to the invention, e.g. low temperature resistance and/or tolerance related genes, for example from A. thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays Physcomitrella patens or Populus trichocarpa or or Oryza sativa
[00887] Transformation of wheat can be performed with the method described by Ishida et al. (Nature Biotech. 14745 (1996)). The cultivar Bobwhite (available from CYMMIT, Mexico) is commonly used in transformation. Immature embryos are co-cultivated with Agrobac- terium tumefaciens that carry "super binary" vectors, and transgenic plants are recovered through organogenesis. The super binary vector system of Japan Tobacco is described in WO patents WO 94/00977 and WO 95/06722. Vectors are constructed as described. Various selection marker genes can be used including the maize gene encoding a mutated ace- tohydroxy acid synthase (AHAS) enzyme (US patent 6,025,541 ). Similarly, various promoters can be used to regulate the trait gene to provide constitutive, developmental, tissue or environmental regulation of gene transcription. In this example, the 34S promoter (GenBank Accession numbers M59930 and X16673) is used to provide constitutive expression of the trait gene.
[00888] After incubation with Agrobacterium, the embryos are grown on callus induction medium, then regeneration medium, containing imidazolinone as a selection agent. The Petri plates are incubated in the light at 25°C for 2-3 weeks, or until shoots develop. The green shoots are transferred from each embryo to rooting medium and incubated at 25°C for 2-3 weeks, until roots develop. The rooted shoots are transplanted to soil in the greenhouse. T1 seeds are produced from plants that exhibit tolerance to the imidazolinone herbicides and which are PCR positive for the transgenes.
[00889] The T1 transgenic plants can then be evaluated for their increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with enhanced tolerance to low temperature and/or increased biomass production according to the method described in example 2. The T1 generation of single locus insertions of the T-DNA will segregate for the transgene in a 1 :2: 1 ratio. Those progeny containing one or two copies of the transgene (3/4 of the progeny) are tolerant regarding the imidazolinone herbicide, and exhibit an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with enhanced tolerance to low temperature and/or increased biomass production compared to those progeny lacking the transgenes.
[00890] For the assessment of yield increase, e.g. tolerance to low temperature, biomass production, intrinsic yield and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield can be compared to e.g. corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants. For example, plants with an increased yield, e.g. an increased yield-related trait, e.g. higher tolerance to stress, e.g. with an increased nutrient use efficiency or an increased intrinsic yield, and e.g. with higher tolerance to low temperature may show increased biomass production and/or dry matter production and/or seed yield under low temperature when compared plants lacking the transgene, e.g. to corresponding non-transgenic wild type plants.
[00891] EXAMPLE 20:
Engineering rice plants with increased yield under condition of transient and repetitive abiotic stress by over-expressing stress related genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae or E. coli or Azotobacter vinelandii or Thermus thermophilus or Synechocystis
Rice transformation
[00892] The Agrobacterium containing the expression vector of the invention can be used to transform Oryza sativa plants. Mature dry seeds of the rice japonica cultivar Nip- ponbare are dehusked. Sterilization is carried out by incubating for one minute in 70% ethanol, followed by 30 minutes in 0.2% HgC , followed by a 6 times 15 minutes wash with sterile distilled water. The sterile seeds are then germinated on a medium containing 2,4-D (callus induction medium). After incubation in the dark for four weeks, embryogenic, scutel- lum-derived calli are excised and propagated on the same medium. After two weeks, the calli are multiplied or propagated by subculture on the same medium for another 2 weeks. Embryogenic callus pieces are sub-cultured on fresh medium 3 days before co-cultivation (to boost cell division activity).
[00893] Agrobacterium strain LBA4404 containing the expression vector of the invention can be used for co-cultivation. Agrobacterium is inoculated on AB medium with the appropriate antibiotics and cultured for 3 days at 28°C. The bacteria are then collected and suspended in liquid co-cultivation medium to a density (OD600) of about 1. The suspension is then transferred to a Petri dish and the calli immersed in the suspension for 15 minutes. The callus tissues are then blotted dry on a filter paper and transferred to solidified, co- cultivation medium and incubated for 3 days in the dark at 25°C. Co-cultivated calli are grown on 2,4-D-containing medium for 4 weeks in the dark at 28°C in the presence of a selection agent. During this period, rapidly growing resistant callus islands developed. After transfer of this material to a regeneration medium and incubation in the light, the embryo- genic potential is released and shoots developed in the next four to five weeks. Shoots are excised from the call i and incubated for 2 to 3 weeks on an auxin-containing medium from which they are transferred to soil. Hardened shoots are grown under high humidity and short days in a greenhouse.
[00894] Approximately 35 independent TO rice transformants are generated for one construct. The primary transformants are transferred from a tissue culture chamber to a greenhouse. After a quantitative PCR analysis to verify copy number of the T-DNA insert, only single copy transgenic plants that exhibit tolerance to the selection agent are kept for har- vest of T1 seed. Seeds are then harvested three to five months after transplanting. The method yielded single locus transformants at a rate of over 50 % (Aldemita and Hodges1996, Chan et al. 1993, Hiei et al. 1994).
[00895] For the cycling drought assay repetitive stress is applied to plants without leading to desiccation. The water supply throughout the experiment is limited and plants are subjected to cycles of drought and re-watering. For measuring biomass production, plant fresh weight is determined one day after the final watering by cutting shoots and weighing them.
[00896] EXAMPLE 21 :
Engineering rice plants with increased yield under condition of transient and repetitive abiotic stress by over-expressing yield and stress related genes for example from A. thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Zea mays or Physcomitrella patens or Populus trichocarpa or Oryza sativa for example
[00897] Rice transformation:
[00898] The Agrobacterium containing the expression vector of the invention can be used to transform Oryza sativa plants. Mature dry seeds of the rice japonica cultivar Nip- ponbare are dehusked. Sterilization is carried out by incubating for one minute in 70% ethanol, followed by 30 minutes in 0.2% HgCI2, followed by a 6 times 15 minutes wash with sterile distilled water. The sterile seeds are then germinated on a medium containing 2,4-D (callus induction medium). After incubation in the dark for four weeks, embryogenic, scutel- lum-derived calli are excised and propagated on the same medium. After two weeks, the calli are multiplied or propagated by subculture on the same medium for another 2 weeks. Embryogenic callus pieces are sub-cultured on fresh medium 3 days before co-cultivation (to boost cell division activity).
[00899] Agrobacterium strain LBA4404 containing the expression vector of the invention can be used for co-cultivation. Agrobacterium is inoculated on AB medium with the appropriate antibiotics and cultured for 3 days at 28°C. The bacteria are then collected and suspended in liquid co-cultivation medium to a density (OD600) of about 1. The suspension is then transferred to a Petri dish and the calli immersed in the suspension for 15 minutes. The callus tissues are then blotted dry on a filter paper and transferred to solidified, co- cultivation medium and incubated for 3 days in the dark at 25°C. Co-cultivated calli are grown on 2,4-D-containing medium for 4 weeks in the dark at 28°C in the presence of a selection agent. During this period, rapidly growing resistant callus islands developed. After transfer of this material to a regeneration medium and incubation in the light, the embryo- genic potential is released and shoots developed in the next four to five weeks. Shoots are excised from the calli and incubated for 2 to 3 weeks on an auxin-containing medium from which they are transferred to soil. Hardened shoots are grown under high humidity and short days in a greenhouse.
[00900] Approximately 35 independent TO rice transformants are generated for one construct. The primary transformants are transferred from a tissue culture chamber to a greenhouse. After a quantitative PCR analysis to verify copy number of the T-DNA insert, only single copy transgenic plants that exhibit tolerance to the selection agent are kept for har- vest of T1 seed. Seeds are then harvested three to five months after transplanting. The method yielded single locus transformants at a rate of over 50 % (Aldemita and Hodges1996, Chan et al. 1993, Hiei et al. 1994).
[00901] For the cycling drought assay repetitive stress is applied to plants without leading to desiccation. The water supply throughout the experiment is limited and plants are subjected to cycles of drought and re-watering. For measuring biomass production, plant fresh weight is determined one day after the final watering by cutting shoots and weighing them. At an equivalent degree of drought stress, tolerant plants are able to resume normal growth whereas susceptible plants have died or suffer significant injury resulting in shorter leaves and less dry matter.
[00902] FIGURES:
[00903] Fig. 1. Vector VC-MME220-1qcz (SEQ ID NO: 41 ) used for cloning gene of interest for non-targeted expression.
[00904] Fig. 2. Vector VC-MME221-1qcz (SEQ ID NO: 46) used for cloning gene of interest for non-targeted expression.
[00905] Fig. 3. Vector VC-MME354-1 QCZ (SEQ ID NO: 32) used for cloning gene of interest for plastidic targeted expression.
[00906] Fig. 4. Vector VC-MME432-1qcz (SEQ ID NO: 42) used for cloning gene of interest for plastidic targeted expression.
[00907] Fig. 5. Vector VC-MME489-1 QCZ (SEQ ID NO: 56) used for cloning gene of interest for non-targeted expression and cloning of a targeting sequence.
[00908] Fig. 6. Vector pMTX0270p (SEQ ID NO: 9) used for cloning of a targeting sequence. [00909] Fig. 7. Vector pMTX155 (SEQ ID NO: 31 ) used for used for cloning gene of interest for non-targeted expression.
[00910] Fig. 8. Vector VC-MME356-1 QCZ (SEQ ID NO: 34) used for mitochondric targeted expression.
[00911] Fig. 9. Vector VC-MME301 -1 QCZ (SEQ ID NO: 36) used for non-targeted expression in preferentially seeds.
[00912] Fig. 10. Vector pMTX461 korrp (SEQ ID NO: 37) used for plastidic targeted expression in preferentially seeds.
[00913] Fig. 1 1. Vector VC-MME462-1 QCZ (SEQ ID NO: 39) used for mitochondric tar- geted expression in preferentially seeds.
[00914] Fig. 12. Vector VC-MME431 -1 qcz (SEQ ID NO: 44) used for mitochondric targeted expression.
[00915] Fig. 13. Vector pMTX447korr (SEQ ID NO: 47) used for plastidic targeted expression.
[00916] Fig. 14. Vector VC-MME445-1 qcz (SEQ ID NO: 49) used for mitochondric targeted expression.
[00917] Fig. 15. Vector VC-MME289-1 qcz (SEQ ID NO: 51 ) used for non targeted expression in preferentially seeds.
[00918] Fig. 16. Vector VC-MME464-1 qcz (SEQ ID NO: 52) used for plastidic targeted expression in preferentially seeds.
[00919] Fig. 17. Vector VC-MME465-1 qcz (SEQ ID NO: 54) used for mitochondric targeted expression in preferentially seeds.
Table IA: Nucleic acid sequence ID numbers
Figure imgf000240_0001
Figure imgf000241_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
1368 1370 1372, 1374, 1376
1553 1555 1557, 1559, 1561 1563 1565 1567, 1569 1571 ,
AT3G01 15
NUE_OE 1573 1575 1577, 1579, 1581 1583 1585 1587, 1589 1591 ,
0.1_truncat A. th. 1551 cytoplasmic
X3 1593 1595 1597, 1599, 1601 1603 1605 1607, 1609 161 1 , ed
1613 1615 1617
1630 1632 1634, 1636, 1638 1640 1642 1644, 1646 1648,
NUE_OE AT5G4744
A. th. 1628 cytoplasmic 1650 1652 1654, 1656, 1658 1660 1662 1664, 1666 1668, X3 0 modified
1670 1672 1674, 1676, 1678 1680 1682 1684, 1686 1688
171 1 1713 1715, 1717, 1719 1721 1723 1725, 1727 1729, 1731 1733 1735, 1737, 1739 1741 1743 1745, 1747 1749, 1751 1753 1755, 1757, 1759 1761 1763 1765, 1767 1769, 1771 1773 1775, 1777, 1779 1781 1783 1785, 1787 1789, 1791 1793 1795, 1797, 1799 1801 1803 1805, 1807 1809, 181 1 1813 1815, 1817, 1819 1821 1823 1825, 1827 1829, 1831 1833 1835, 1837, 1839 1841 1843 1845, 1847 1849, 1851 1853 1855, 1857, 1859 1861 1863 1865, 1867 1869, 1871 1873 1875, 1877, 1879 1881 1883 1885, 1887 1889,
NUE_OE
B1208 E. coli 1709 plastidic 1891 1893 1895, 1897, 1899 1901 1903 1905, 1907 1909, X3
191 1 1913 1915, 1917, 1919 1921 1923 1925, 1927 1929, 1931 1933 1935, 1937, 1939 1941 1943 1945, 1947 1949, 1951 1953 1955, 1957, 1959 1961 1963 1965, 1967 1969, 1971 1973 1975, 1977, 1979 1981 1983 1985, 1987 1989, 1991 1993 1995, 1997, 1999 2001 2003 2005, 2007 2009, 201 1 2013 2015, 2017, 2019 2021 2023 2025, 2027 2029, 2031 2033 2035, 2037, 2039 2041 2043 2045, 2047 2049, 2051 2053 2055, 2057, 2059 2061 2063 2065, 2067 2069, 2071 2073 2075, 2077, 2079 2081 2083 2085, 2087 2089,
Figure imgf000243_0001
Figure imgf000244_0001
Figure imgf000244_0002
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
3179 3181 3183 3185 3187 3189 3191 3193 3195, 3197, 3199 3201 3203 3205 3207 3209 321 1 3213 3215, 3217, 3219 3221 3223 3225 3227 3229 3231 3233 3235, 3237, 3239 3241 3243 3245 3247 3249 3251 3253 3255, 3257, 3259 3261 3263 3265 3267 3269 3271 3273 3275, 3277, 3279 3281 3283 3285 3287 3289 3291 3293 3295, 3297, 3299 3301 3303 3305 3307 3309 331 1 3313 3315, 3317, 3319 3321 3323 3325 3327 3329 3331 3333 3335, 3337, 3339 3341 3343 3345 3347 3349 3351 3353 3355, 3357, 3359 3361 3363 3365 3367 3369 3371 3373 3375, 3377, 3379 3381 3383 3385 3387 3389 3391 3393 3395, 3397, 3399 3401 3403 3405 3407
3465 3467 3469 3471 3473 3475 3477 3479 3481 3483, 3485 3487 3489 3491 3493 3495 3497 3499 3501 3503, 3505 3507 3509 351 1 3513 3515 3517 3519 3521 3523, 3525 3527 3529 3531 3533 3535 3537 3539 3541 3543, 3545 3547 3549 3551 3553 3555 3557 3559 3561 3563, 3565 3567 3569 3571 3573 3575 3577 3579 3581 3583, 3585 3587 3589 3591 3593 3595 3597 3599 3601 3603,
NUE_OE
12 CDS5305 3463 cytoplasmic 3605 3607 3609 361 1 3613 3615 3617 3619 3621 3623,
X3
arpa 3625 3627 3629 3631 3633 3635 3637 3639 3641 3643,
3645 3647 3649 3651 3653 3655 3657 3659 3661 3663, 3665 3667 3669 3671 3673 3675 3677 3679 3681 3683, 3685 3687 3689 3691 3693 3695 3697 3699 3701 3703, 3705 3707 3709 371 1 3713 3715 3717 3719 3721 3723, 3725 3727 3729 3731 3733 3735 3737 3739 3741 3743, 3745 3747 3749 3751 3753 3755
Figure imgf000246_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
4336 4338 4340 4342 4344 4346 4348 4350 4352 4354, 4356 4358 4360 4362 4364 4366 4368 4370 4372 4374, 4376 4378 4380 4382 4384 4386 4388 4390 4392 4394, 4396 4398 4400 4402 4404 4406 4408 4410 4412 4414, 4416; 4418 4420 4422 4424 4426 4428 4430 4432 4434, 4436; 4438 4440 4442 4444 4446 4448 4450 4452 4454, 4456 4458 4460 4462 4464 4466 4468 4470 4472 4474, 4476; 4478 4480 4482 4484 4486 4488 4490 4492 4494, 4496; 4498 4500 4502 4504 4506 4508 4510 4512 4514, 4516; 4518 4520 4522 4524 4526 4528 4530 4532 4534, 4536 4538 4540 4542 4544 4546 4548 4550 4552 4554, 4556 4558 4560 4562 4564 4566 4568 4570 4572 4574, 4576
4632 4634 4636 4638 4640 4642 4644 4646 4648 4650, 4652 4654 4656 4658 4660 4662 4664 4666 4668 4670, 4672 4674 4676 4678 4680 4682 4684 4686 4688 4690, 4692 4694 4696 4698 4700 4702 4704 4706 4708 4710, 4712 4714 4716 4718 4720 4722 4724 4726 4728 4730, 4732 4734 4736 4738 4740 4742 4744 4746 4748 4750,
T.
NUE_OE 4752 4754 4756 4758 4760 4762 4764 4766 4768 4770,
14 TTC1 186 thermo 4630 cytoplasmic
X3 4772 4774 4776 4778 4780 4782 4784 4786 4788 4790, philus
4792 4794 4796 4798 4800 4802 4804 4806 4808 4810, 4812 4814 4816 4818 4820 4822 4824 4826 4828 4830, 4832 4834 4836 4838 4840 4842 4844 4846 4848 4850, 4852 4854 4856 4858 4860 4862 4864 4866 4868 4870, 4872 4874 4876 4878 4880 4882 4884 4886 4888 4890, 4892 4894 4896 4898 4900 4902 4904 4906 4908 4910,
Figure imgf000248_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
5654 5656 5658 5660 5662 5664 5666 5668 5670 5672, 5674 5676 5678 5680 5682 5684 5686 5688 5690 5692, 5694 5696 5698 5700 5702 5704 5706
5840 5842 5844 5846 5848 5850 5852 5854 5856 5858, 5860 5862 5864 5866 5868 5870 5872 5874 5876 5878,
NUE_OE At1 G29250 5880 5882 5884 5886 5888 5890 5892 5894 5896 5898,
18 A. th. 5838 cytoplasmic
X3 .1 5900 5902 5904 5906 5908 5910 5912 5914 5916 5918,
5920 5922 5924 5926 5928 5930 5932 5934 5936 5938, 5940
5984 5986 5988 5990 5992 5994 5996 5998 6000 6002, 6004 6006 6008 6010 6012 6014 6016 6018 6020 6022, 6024 6026 6028 6030 6032 6034 6036 6038 6040 6042, 6044 6046 6048 6050 6052 6054 6056 6058 6060 6062, 6064 6066 6068 6070 6072 6074 6076 6078 6080 6082, 6084 6086 6088 6090 6092 6094 6096 6098 6100 6102, 6104 6106 6108 61 10 61 12 61 14 61 16 61 18 6120 6122, 6124 6126 6128 6130 6132 6134 6136 6138 6140 6142,
NUE_OE AT1 G5592 6144 6146 6148 6150 6152 6154 6156 6158 6160 6162,
19 A. th. 5982 cytoplasmic
X3 0.1 6164 6166 6168 6170 6172 6174 6176 6178 6180 6182,
6184 6186 6188 6190 6192 6194 6196 6198 6200 6202, 6204 6206 6208 6210 6212 6214 6216 6218 6220 6222, 6224 6226 6228 6230 6232 6234 6236 6238 6240 6242, 6244 6246 6248 6250 6252 6254 6256 6258 6260 6262, 6264 6266 6268 6270 6272 6274 6276 6278 6280 6282, 6284 6286 6288 6290 6292 6294 6296 6298 6300 6302, 6304 6306 6308 6310 6312 6314 6316 6318 6320 6322, 6324 6326 6328 6330 6332 6334 6336 6338 6340 6342,
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
6344 6346 6348 6350 6352 6354 6356 6358 6360 6362, 6364 6366 6368 6370 6372 6374 6376 6378 6380 6382, 6384 6386 6388 6390 6392 6394 6396 6398 6400 6402, 6404 6406 6408 6410 6412 6414 6416 6418 6420 6422, 6424 6426 6428 6430 6432 6434 6436 6438 6440 6442, 6444 6446 6448 6450 6452 6454 6456 6458 6460 6462
6496 6498 6500 6502 6504 6506 6508 6510 6512 6514, 6516 6518 6520 6522 6524 6526 6528 6530 6532 6534, 6536 6538 6540 6542 6544 6546 6548 6550 6552 6554, 6556 6558 6560 6562 6564 6566 6568 6570 6572 6574, 6576 6578 6580 6582 6584 6586 6588 6590 6592 6594, 6596 6598 6600 6602 6604 6606 6608 6610 6612 6614, 6616 6618 6620 6622 6624 6626 6628 6630 6632 6634, 6636 6638 6640 6642 6644 6646 6648 6650 6652 6654, 6656 6658 6660 6662 6664 6666 6668 6670 6672 6674, 6676 6678 6680 6682 6684 6686 6688 6690 6692 6694,
NUE_OE AT3G0948
20 A. th. 6494 cytoplasmic 6696 6698 6700 6702 6704 6706 6708 6710 6712 6714,
X3 0
6716 6718 6720 6722 6724 6726 6728 6730 6732 6734, 6736 6738 6740 6742 6744 6746 6748 6750 6752 6754, 6756 6758 6760 6762 6764 6766 6768 6770 6772 6774, 6776 6778 6780 6782 6784 6786 6788 6790 6792 6794, 6796 6798 6800 6802 6804 6806 6808 6810 6812 6814, 6816 6818 6820 6822 6824 6826 6828 6830 6832 6834, 6836 6838 6840 6842 6844 6846 6848 6850 6852 6854, 6856 6858 6860 6862 6864 6866 6868 6870 6872 6874, 6876 6878 6880 6882 6884 6886 6888 6890 6892 6894, 6896 6898 6900 6902 6904 6906 6908 6910 6912 6914,
Figure imgf000251_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
7647 7649 7651 7653 7655 7657 7659 7661 7663 7665, 7667 7669 7671 7673 7675 7677 7679 7681 7683 7685, 7687 7689 7691 7693
7723 7725 7727 7729 7731 7733 7735 7737 7739 7741 7743 7745 7747 7749 7751 7753 7755 7757 7759 7761
NUE_OE AT1 G0390 7763 7765 7767 7769 7771 7773 7775 7777 7779 7781
25 A. th. 7721 cytoplasmic
X3 5.1 7783 7785 7787 7789 7791 7793 7795 7797 7799 7801
7803 7805 7807 7809 781 1 7813 7815 7817 7819 7821 7823 7825 7827 7829 7831 7833 7835
8289 8291 8293 8295 8297 8299 8301 8303 8305 8307, 8309 831 1 8313 8315 8317 8319 8321 8323 8325 8327,
NUE_OE AT4G2224
26 A. th. 8287 cytoplasmic 8329 8331 8333 8335 8337 8339 8341 8343 8345 8347,
X3 0.1
8349 8351 8353 8355 8357 8359 8361 8363 8365 8367, 8369 8371 8373 8375 8377 8379
7866 7868 7870 7872 7874 7876 7878 7880 7882 7884, 7886 7888 7890 7892 7894 7896 7898 7900 7902 7904, 7906 7908 7910 7912 7914 7916 7918 7920 7922 7924, 7926 7928 7930 7932 7934 7936 7938 7940 7942 7944,
NUE_OE AT1 G0935
27 A. th. 7864 cytoplasmic 7946 7948 7950 7952 7954 7956 7958 7960 7962 7964,
X3 0.1
7966 7968 7970 7972 7974 7976 7978 7980 7982 7984, 7986 7988 7990 7992 7994 7996 7998 8000 8002 8004, 8006 8008 8010 8012 8014 8016 8018 8020 8022 8024, 8026
NUE_OE AT1 G3013 8074 8076 8078 8080 8082 8084,
28 A. th. 8064 cytoplasmic
X3 5.1
NUE_OE AT1 G3568 81 14 81 16 81 18 8120 8122 8124,
29 A. th. 8104 cytoplasmic
X3 0.1
Figure imgf000252_0001
8134
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
8154 8156 8158 8160 8162 8164 8166 8168 8170, 8172,
NUE_OE AT2G4254
30 A. th. 8152 cytoplasmic 8174 8176 8178 8180 8182 8184 8186 8188 8190, 8192,
X3 0.1
8194 8196
8208 8210 8212 8214 8216 8218 8220 8222 8224, 8226,
NUE_OE AT3G0299
31 A. th. 8206 cytoplasmic 8228 8230 8232 8234 8236 8238 8240 8242 8244, 8246,
X3 0.1
8248 8250 8252 8254 8256 8258 8260 8262 8264, 8266
8410 8412 8414 8416 8418 8420 8422 8424 8426, 8428, 8430 8432 8434 8436 8438 8440 8442 8444 8446, 8448, 8450 8452 8454 8456 8458 8460 8462 8464 8466, 8468, 8470 8472 8474 8476 8478 8480 8482 8484 8486, 8488, 8490 8492 8494 8496 8498 8500 8502 8504 8506, 8508, 8510 8512 8514 8516 8518 8520 8522 8524 8526, 8528, 8530 8532 8534 8536 8538 8540 8542 8544 8546, 8548,
NUE_OE At5g37670.
32 A. th. 8408 cytoplasmic 8550 8552 8554 8556 8558 8560 8562 8564 8566, 8568,
X3 1
8570 8572 8574 8576 8578 8580 8582 8584 8586, 8588, 8590 8592 8594 8596 8598 8600 8602 8604 8606, 8608, 8610 8612 8614 8616 8618 8620 8622 8624 8626, 8628, 8630 8632 8634 8636 8638 8640 8642 8644 8646, 8648, 8650 8652 8654 8656 8658 8660 8662 8664 8666, 8668, 8670 8672 8674 8676 8678 8680 8682 8684 8686, 8688, 8690 8692 8694 8696 8698 8700
8844 8846 8848 8850 8852 8854 8856 8858 8860, 8862, 8864 8866 8868 8870 8872 8874 8876 8878 8880, 8882,
NUE_OE 8884 8886 8888 8890 8892 8894 8896 8898 8900, 8902,
33 CDS5376 8842 cytoplasmic
X3 8904 8906 8908 8910 8912 8914 8916 8918 8920, 8922, arpa
8924 8926 8928 8930 8932 8934 8936 8938 8940, 8942, 8944 8946 8948 8950 8952 8954 8956 8958 8960, 8962,
Figure imgf000254_0001
Figure imgf000255_0001
Figure imgf000256_0001
Figure imgf000257_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
10999, 11001, 11003, 11005, 11007, 11009, 11011, 11013,
11015, 11017, 11019, 11021, 11023, 11025, 11027, 11029,
11031, 11033, 11035, 11037, 11039, 11041, 11043, 11045,
11047, 11049, 11051, 11053, 11055, 11057, 11059, 11061,
11063, 11065, 11067, 11069, 11071, 11073, 11075, 11077,
11079, 11081, 11083, 11085, 11087, 11089, 11091, 11093,
11095, 11097, 11099, 11101, 11103, 11105, 11107, 11109,
11111, 11113, 11115, 11117, 11119, 11121, 11123, 11125,
11127, 11129, 11131, 11133, 11135, 11137, 11139, 11141,
11143, 11145, 11147, 11149, 11151, 11153, 11155, 11157,
11159, 11161, 11163, 11165, 11167, 11169, 11171, 11173,
11175, 11177, 11179, 11181, 11183, 11185, 11187, 11189,
11191, 11193, 11195, 11197, 11199, 11201, 11203, 11205,
11207, 11209, 11211, 11213, 11215, 11217, 11219, 11221,
11223, 11225, 11227, 11229, 11231, 11233, 11235, 11237,
11239, 11241, 11243, 11245, 11247, 11249, 11251, 11253,
11255, 11257, 11259, 11261, 11263, 11265, 11267, 11269,
11271, 11273, 11275, 11277, 11279, 11281, 11283, 11285,
11287, 11289, 11291, 11293, 11295, 11297, 11299, 11301
11420, 11422, 11424, 11426, 11428, 11430, 11432 11434 11436, 11438, 11440, 11442, 11444, 11446, 11448 11450 11452, 11454, 11456, 11458, 11460, 11462, 11464 11466
NUE_OE AT2G2704 11468, 11470, 11472, 11474, 11476, 11478, 11480 11482
40 A. th. 11418 cytoplasmic
X3 0 11484, 11486, 11488, 11490, 11492, 11494, 11496 11498
11500, 11502, 11504, 11506, 11508, 11510, 11512 11514 11516, 11518, 11520, 11522, 11524, 11526, 11528 11530 11532, 11534, 11536, 11538, 11540, 11542, 11544 11546
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
11548, 11550, 11552, 11554, 11556, 11558, 11560, 11562, 11564, 11566, 11568, 11570, 11572, 11574, 11576, 11578, 11580, 11582, 11584, 11586, 11588, 11590, 11592, 11594, 11596, 11598, 11600, 11602, 11604, 11606, 11608, 11610, 11612, 11614, 11616, 11618, 11620, 11622, 11624, 11626, 11628, 11630, 11632, 11634, 11636, 11638, 11640, 11642, 11644, 11646, 11648, 11650, 11652, 11654, 11656, 11658, 11660, 11662, 11664, 11666, 11668, 11670, 11672, 11674, 11676, 11678, 11680, 11682, 11684, 11686, 11688, 11690, 11692, 11694, 11696, 11698, 11700, 11702, 11704, 11706, 11708, 11710, 11712, 11714, 11716, 11718, 11720, 11722, 11724, 11726, 11728, 11730
11754, 11756, 11758, 11760, 11762, 11764, 11766, 11768,
11770, 11772, 11774, 11776, 11778, 11780, 11782, 11784,
11786, 11788, 11790, 11792, 11794, 11796, 11798, 11800,
11802, 11804, 11806, 11808, 11810, 11812, 11814, 11816,
11818, 11820, 11822, 11824, 11826, 11828, 11830, 11832,
11834, 11836, 11838, 11840, 11842, 11844, 11846, 11848,
11850, 11852, 11854, 11856, 11858, 11860, 11862, 11864,
NUE_OE AT2G2949
41 A. th. 11752 cytoplasmic 11866, 11868, 11870, 11872, 11874, 11876, 11878, 11880,
X3 0
11882, 11884, 11886, 11888, 11890, 11892, 11894, 11896,
11898, 11900, 11902, 11904, 11906, 11908, 11910, 11912,
11914, 11916, 11918, 11920, 11922, 11924, 11926, 11928,
11930, 11932, 11934, 11936, 11938, 11940, 11942, 11944,
11946, 11948, 11950, 11952, 11954, 11956, 11958, 11960,
11962, 11964, 11966, 11968, 11970, 11972, 11974, 11976,
11978, 11980, 11982, 11984, 11986, 11988, 11990, 11992,
Figure imgf000260_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Nucleic Acid Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
12494, 12496, 12498, 12500, 12502, 12504, 12506, 12508, 12510, 12512, 12514, 12516, 12518, 12520, 12522, 12524, 12526, 12528, 12530, 12532, 12534, 12536, 12538, 12540, 12542, 12544, 12546, 12548, 12550, 12552, 12554, 12556
12575, 12577, 12579, 12581 , 12583, 12585, 12587, 12589, 12591 , 12593, 12595, 12597, 12599, 12601 , 12603, 12605,
NUE_OE AT3G0462
44 A. th. 12573 cytoplasmic 12607, 12609, 1261 1 , 12613, 12615, 12617, 12619, 12621 ,
X3 0
12623, 12625, 12627, 12629, 12631 , 12633, 12635, 12637, 12639, 12641 , 12643
12670, 12672, 12674, 12676, 12678, 12680, 12682, 12684, 12686, 12688, 12690, 12692, 12694, 12696, 12698, 12700, 12702, 12704, 12706, 12708, 12710, 12712, 12714, 12716, 12718, 12720, 12722, 12724, 12726, 12728, 12730, 12732, 12734, 12736, 12738, 12740, 12742, 12744, 12746, 12748, 12750, 12752, 12754, 12756, 12758, 12760, 12762, 12764, 12766, 12768, 12770, 12772, 12774, 12776, 12778, 12780, 12782, 12784, 12786, 12788, 12790, 12792, 12794, 12796,
NUE_OE AT3G2096
45 A. th. 12668 cytoplasmic 12798, 12800, 12802, 12804, 12806, 12808, 12810, 12812,
X3 0
12814, 12816, 12818, 12820, 12822, 12824, 12826, 12828, 12830, 12832, 12834, 12836, 12838, 12840, 12842, 12844, 12846, 12848, 12850, 12852, 12854, 12856, 12858, 12860, 12862, 12864, 12866, 12868, 12870, 12872, 12874, 12876, 12878, 12880, 12882, 12884, 12886, 12888, 12890, 12892, 12894, 12896, 12898, 12900, 12902, 12904, 12906, 12908, 12910, 12912, 12914, 12916, 12918, 12920, 12922, 12924, 12926, 12928, 12930, 12932, 12934, 12936
46 NUE OE AT3G6158 A. th. 13131 cytoplasmic 13133, 13135, 13137, 13139, 13141 , 13143, 13145, 13147,
Figure imgf000262_0001
Figure imgf000263_0001
Table IB: Nucleic acid sequence ID numbers
Figure imgf000264_0001
Figure imgf000265_0001
Figure imgf000266_0001
Figure imgf000267_0001
Figure imgf000268_0001
Figure imgf000269_0001
Figure imgf000270_0001
Table MA: Amino acid sequence ID numbers
Figure imgf000271_0001
Figure imgf000272_0001
Figure imgf000273_0001
Figure imgf000274_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
Figure imgf000275_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs
cation nism SEQ ID
3180 3182 3184 3186 3188 3190 3192 3194 3196 3198, 3200 3202 3204 3206 3208 3210 3212 3214 3216 3218, 3220 3222 3224 3226 3228 3230 3232 3234 3236 3238, 3240 3242 3244 3246 3248 3250 3252 3254 3256 3258, 3260 3262 3264 3266 3268 3270 3272 3274 3276 3278, 3280 3282 3284 3286 3288 3290 3292 3294 3296 3298, 3300 3302 3304 3306 3308 3310 3312 3314 3316 3318, 3320 3322 3324 3326 3328 3330 3332 3334 3336 3338, 3340 3342 3344 3346 3348 3350 3352 3354 3356 3358, 3360 3362 3364 3366 3368 3370 3372 3374 3376 3378, 3380 3382 3384 3386 3388 3390 3392 3394 3396 3398, 3400 3402 3404 3406 3408
3466 3468 3470 3472 3474 3476 3478 3480 3482 3484, 3486 3488 3490 3492 3494 3496 3498 3500 3502 3504, 3506 3508 3510 3512 3514 3516 3518 3520 3522 3524, 3526 3528 3530 3532 3534 3536 3538 3540 3542 3544, 3546 3548 3550 3552 3554 3556 3558 3560 3562 3564, 3566 3568 3570 3572 3574 3576 3578 3580 3582 3584, 3586 3588 3590 3592 3594 3596 3598 3600 3602 3604,
NUE_OE
12 CDS5305 3464 cytoplasmic 3606 3608 3610 3612 3614 3616 3618 3620 3622 3624,
X3
arpa 3626 3628 3630 3632 3634 3636 3638 3640 3642 3644,
3646 3648 3650 3652 3654 3656 3658 3660 3662 3664, 3666 3668 3670 3672 3674 3676 3678 3680 3682 3684, 3686 3688 3690 3692 3694 3696 3698 3700 3702 3704, 3706 3708 3710 3712 3714 3716 3718 3720 3722 3724, 3726 3728 3730 3732 3734 3736 3738 3740 3742 3744, 3746 3748 3750 3752 3754 3756
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs
cation nism SEQ ID
3797, 3799, 3801 3803 3805 3807 3809 381 1 3813, 3815, 3817, 3819, 3821 3823 3825 3827 3829 3831 3833, 3835, 3837, 3839, 3841 3843 3845 3847 3849 3851 3853, 3855, 3857, 3859, 3861 3863 3865 3867 3869 3871 3873, 3875, 3877, 3879, 3881 3883 3885 3887 3889 3891 3893, 3895, 3897, 3899, 3901 3903 3905 3907 3909 391 1 3913, 3915, 3917, 3919, 3921 3923 3925 3927 3929 3931 3933, 3935, 3937, 3939, 3941 3943 3945 3947 3949 3951 3953, 3955, 3957, 3959, 3961 3963 3965 3967 3969 3971 3973, 3975, 3977, 3979, 3981 3983 3985 3987 3989 3991 3993, 3995, 3997, 3999, 4001 4003 4005 4007 4009 401 1 4013, 4015, 4017, 4019, 4021 4023 4025 4027 4029 4031 4033, 4035, 4037, 4039, 4041 4043 4045; 4047 4049 4051 4053, 4055,
NUE_OE
13 CDS5397 3795 cytoplasmic 4057, 4059, 4061 4063 4065 4067 4069 4071 4073, 4075,
X3
arpa 4077, 4079, 4081 4083 4085 4087 4089 4091 4093, 4095,
4097, 4099, 4101 4103 4105; 4107 4109 41 1 1 41 13, 41 15, 41 17, 41 19, 4121 4123 4125 4127 4129 4131 4133, 4135, 4137, 4139, 4141 4143 4145; 4147 4149 4151 4153, 4155, 4157, 4159, 4161 4163 4165; 4167 4169 4171 4173, 4175, 4177, 4179, 4181 4183 4185 4187 4189 4191 4193, 4195, 4197, 4199, 4201 4203 4205 4207 4209 421 1 4213, 4215, 4217, 4219, 4221 4223 4225 4227 4229 4231 4233, 4235, 4237, 4239, 4241 4243 4245; 4247 4249 4251 4253, 4255, 4257, 4259, 4261 4263 4265 4267 4269 4271 4273, 4275, 4277, 4279, 4281 4283 4285 4287 4289 4291 4293, 4295, 4297, 4299, 4301 4303 4305 4307 4309 431 1 4313, 4315, 4317, 4319, 4321 4323 4325 4327 4329 4331 4333, 4335,
AppliOrga- Lead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs cation SEQ ID
T.
NUE_OE
14 TTC1 186 thermo 4631 cytoplasmic
X3
philus
Figure imgf000278_0001
Figure imgf000279_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs
cation nism SEQ ID
5655 5657 5659 5661 5663 5665 5667 5669, 5671 5673, 5675 5677 5679 5681 5683 5685 5687 5689, 5691 5693, 5695 5697 5699 5701 5703 5705 5707
5841 5843 5845 5847 5849 5851 5853 5855, 5857 5859, 5861 5863 5865 5867 5869 5871 5873 5875, 5877 5879,
NUE_OE At1 G29250 5881 5883 5885 5887 5889 5891 5893 5895, 5897 5899,
18 A. th. 5839 cytoplasmic
X3 .1 5901 5903 5905 5907 5909 591 1 5913 5915, 5917 5919,
5921 5923 5925 5927 5929 5931 5933 5935, 5937 5939, 5941
5985 5987 5989 5991 5993 5995 5997 5999, 6001 6003, 6005 6007 6009 601 1 6013 6015 6017 6019, 6021 6023, 6025 6027 6029 6031 6033 6035 6037 6039, 6041 6043, 6045 6047 6049 6051 6053 6055 6057 6059, 6061 6063, 6065 6067 6069 6071 6073 6075 6077 6079, 6081 6083, 6085 6087 6089 6091 6093 6095 6097 6099, 6101 6103, 6105 6107 6109 61 1 1 61 13 61 15 61 17 61 19, 6121 6123, 6125 6127 6129 6131 6133 6135 6137 6139, 6141 6143,
NUE_OE AT1 G5592 6145; 6147 6149 6151 6153 6155 6157 6159, 6161 6163,
19 A. th. 5983 cytoplasmic
X3 0.1 6165 6167 6169 6171 6173 6175 6177 6179, 6181 6183,
6185 6187 6189 6191 6193 6195 6197 6199, 6201 6203, 6205 6207 6209 621 1 6213 6215 6217 6219, 6221 6223, 6225 6227 6229 6231 6233 6235 6237 6239, 6241 6243, 6245 6247 6249 6251 6253 6255 6257 6259, 6261 6263, 6265 6267 6269 6271 6273 6275 6277 6279, 6281 6283, 6285 6287 6289 6291 6293 6295 6297 6299, 6301 6303, 6305 6307 6309 631 1 6313 6315 6317 6319, 6321 6323, 6325 6327 6329 6331 6333 6335 6337 6339, 6341 6343,
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs
cation nism SEQ ID
6345, 6347, 6349 6351 6353 6355 6357 6359 6361 , 6363, 6365, 6367, 6369 6371 6373 6375 6377 6379 6381 , 6383, 6385, 6387, 6389 6391 6393 6395 6397 6399 6401 , 6403, 6405, 6407, 6409 641 1 6413 6415 6417 6419 6421 , 6423, 6425, 6427, 6429 6431 6433 6435 6437 6439 6441 , 6443, 6445, 6447, 6449 6451 6453 6455 6457 6459 6461 , 6463 6497, 6499, 6501 6503 6505 6507 6509 651 1 6513; 6515, 6517, 6519, 6521 6523 6525 6527 6529 6531 6533; 6535, 6537, 6539, 6541 6543 6545 6547 6549 6551 6553; 6555, 6557, 6559, 6561 6563 6565 6567 6569 6571 6573; 6575, 6577, 6579, 6581 6583 6585 6587 6589 6591 6593; 6595, 6597, 6599, 6601 6603 6605 6607 6609 661 1 6613; 6615, 6617, 6619, 6621 6623 6625 6627 6629 6631 6633; 6635, 6637, 6639, 6641 6643 6645 6647 6649 6651 6653; 6655, 6657, 6659, 6661 6663 6665 6667 6669 6671 6673; 6675, 6677, 6679, 6681 6683 6685 6687 6689 6691 6693, 6695,
NUE_OE AT3G0948
20 A. th. 6495 cytoplasmic 6697, 6699, 6701 6703 6705 6707 6709 671 1 6713, 6715,
X3 0
6717, 6719, 6721 6723 6725 6727 6729 6731 6733 6735, 6737, 6739, 6741 6743 6745 6747 6749 6751 6753 6755, 6757, 6759, 6761 6763 6765 6767 6769 6771 6773 6775, 6777, 6779, 6781 6783 6785 6787 6789 6791 6793 6795, 6797, 6799, 6801 6803 6805 6807 6809 681 1 6813 6815, 6817, 6819, 6821 6823 6825 6827 6829 6831 6833 6835, 6837, 6839, 6841 6843 6845 6847 6849 6851 6853 6855, 6857, 6859, 6861 6863 6865 6867 6869 6871 6873 6875, 6877, 6879, 6881 6883 6885 6887 6889 6891 6893 6895, 6897, 6899, 6901 6903 6905 6907 6909 691 1 6913 6915,
Figure imgf000282_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs
cation nism SEQ ID
7648 7650 7652 7654 7656 7658 7660 7662 7664 7666, 7668 7670 7672 7674 7676 7678 7680 7682 7684 7686, 7688 7690 7692 7694
7724 7726 7728 7730 7732 7734 7736 7738 7740 7742, 7744 7746 7748 7750 7752 7754 7756 7758 7760 7762,
NUE_OE AT1 G0390 7764 7766 7768 7770 7772 7774 7776 7778 7780 7782,
25 A. th. 7722 cytoplasmic
X3 5.1 7784 7786 7788 7790 7792 7794 7796 7798 7800 7802,
7804 7806 7808 7810 7812 7814 7816 7818 7820 7822, 7824 7826 7828 7830 7832 7834 7836
8290 8292 8294 8296 8298 8300 8302 8304 8306 8308, 8310 8312 8314 8316 8318 8320 8322 8324 8326 8328,
NUE_OE AT4G2224
26 A. th. 8288 cytoplasmic 8330 8332 8334 8336 8338 8340 8342 8344 8346 8348,
X3 0.1
8350 8352 8354 8356 8358 8360 8362 8364 8366 8368, 8370 8372 8374 8376 8378 8380
7867 7869 7871 7873 7875 7877 7879 7881 7883 7885, 7887 7889 7891 7893 7895 7897 7899 7901 7903 7905, 7907 7909 791 1 7913 7915 7917 7919 7921 7923 7925, 7927 7929 7931 7933 7935 7937 7939 7941 7943 7945,
NUE_OE AT1 G0935
27 A. th. 7865 cytoplasmic 7947 7949 7951 7953 7955 7957 7959 7961 7963 7965,
X3 0.1
7967 7969 7971 7973 7975 7977 7979 7981 7983 7985, 7987 7989 7991 7993 7995 7997 7999 8001 8003 8005, 8007 8009 801 1 8013 8015 8017 8019 8021 8023 8025, 8027
NUE_OE AT1 G3013 8075 8077 8079 8081 8083 8085,
28 A. th. 8065 cytoplasmic
X3 5.1
NUE_OE AT1 G3568 81 15 81 17 81 19 8121 8123 8125,
29 A. th. 8105 cytoplasmic
X3 0.1
Figure imgf000283_0001
8135
Figure imgf000284_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
Figure imgf000285_0001
Figure imgf000286_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
10084, 10086, 10088, 10090, 10092, 10094, 10096, 10098, 10100, 10102, 10104, 10106, 10108, 101 10, 101 12, 101 14, 101 16, 101 18, 10120, 10122, 10124, 10126, 10128, 10130, 10132, 10134, 10136, 10138, 10140, 10142, 10144, 10146, 10148, 10150, 10152, 10154, 10156, 10158, 10160, 10162, 10164, 10166, 10168, 10170, 10172, 10174, 10176, 10178, 10180, 10182, 10184, 10186, 10188, 10190, 10192, 10194, 10196, 10198, 10200, 10202, 10204, 10206, 10208, 10210, 10212, 10214, 10216, 10218, 10220, 10222, 10224, 10226, 10228, 10230, 10232, 10234, 10236, 10238, 10240, 10242, 10244, 10246, 10248, 10250, 10252, 10254, 10256, 10258, 10260, 10262, 10264, 10266, 10268, 10270, 10272, 10274, 10276, 10278, 10280, 10282, 10284, 10286, 10288, 10290, 10292, 10294, 10296, 10298, 10300, 10302, 10304, 10306, 10308, 10310, 10312, 10314, 10316, 10318, 10320, 10322, 10324, 10326, 10328, 10330, 10332, 10334, 10336, 10338, 10340, 10342, 10344, 10346, 10348, 10350, 10352, 10354, 10356, 10358, 10360, 10362, 10364, 10366, 10368, 10370, 10372, 10374, 10376, 10378, 10380, 10382, 10384, 10386, 10388, 10390, 10392, 10394, 10396, 10398, 10400, 10402, 10404, 10406, 10408, 10410, 10412, 10414, 10416, 10418, 10420, 10422, 10424, 10426, 10428, 10430, 10432, 10434, 10436, 10438, 10440, 10442, 10444, 10446, 10448, 10450, 10452, 10454, 10456, 10458, 10460, 10462, 10464, 10466, 10468, 10470, 10472, 10474, 10476, 10478, 10480, 10482, 10484, 10486, 10488, 10490, 10492, 10494, 10496, 10498, 10500, 10502, 10504, 10506, 10508, 10510, 10512, 10514,
Figure imgf000288_0001
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
11000, 11002, 11004, 11006, 11008, 11010, 11012, 11014,
11016, 11018, 11020, 11022, 11024, 11026, 11028, 11030,
11032, 11034, 11036, 11038, 11040, 11042, 11044, 11046,
11048, 11050, 11052, 11054, 11056, 11058, 11060, 11062,
11064, 11066, 11068, 11070, 11072, 11074, 11076, 11078,
11080, 11082, 11084, 11086, 11088, 11090, 11092, 11094,
11096, 11098, 11100, 11102, 11104, 11106, 11108, 11110,
11112, 11114, 11116, 11118, 11120, 11122, 11124, 11126,
11128, 11130, 11132, 11134, 11136, 11138, 11140, 11142,
11144, 11146, 11148, 11150, 11152, 11154, 11156, 11158,
11160, 11162, 11164, 11166, 11168, 11170, 11172, 11174,
11176, 11178, 11180, 11182, 11184, 11186, 11188, 11190,
11192, 11194, 11196, 11198, 11200, 11202, 11204, 11206,
11208, 11210, 11212, 11214, 11216, 11218, 11220, 11222,
11224, 11226, 11228, 11230, 11232, 11234, 11236, 11238,
11240, 11242, 11244, 11246, 11248, 11250, 11252, 11254,
11256, 11258, 11260, 11262, 11264, 11266, 11268, 11270,
11272, 11274, 11276, 11278, 11280, 11282, 11284, 11286,
11288, 11290, 11292, 11294, 11296, 11298, 11300, 11302
11421, 11423, 11425, 11427, 11429, 11431, 11433 11435 11437, 11439, 11441, 11443, 11445, 11447, 11449 11451 11453, 11455, 11457, 11459, 11461, 11463, 11465 11467
NUE_OE AT2G2704 11469, 11471, 11473, 11475, 11477, 11479, 11481 11483
40 A. th. 11419 cytoplasmic
X3 0 11485, 11487, 11489, 11491, 11493, 11495, 11497 11499
11501, 11503, 11505, 11507, 11509, 11511, 11513 11515 11517, 11519, 11521, 11523, 11525, 11527, 11529 11531 11533, 11535, 11537, 11539, 11541, 11543, 11545 11547
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
11549, 11551, 11553, 11555, 11557, 11559, 11561, 11563, 11565, 11567, 11569, 11571, 11573, 11575, 11577, 11579, 11581, 11583, 11585, 11587, 11589, 11591, 11593, 11595, 11597, 11599, 11601, 11603, 11605, 11607, 11609, 11611, 11613, 11615, 11617, 11619, 11621, 11623, 11625, 11627, 11629, 11631, 11633, 11635, 11637, 11639, 11641, 11643, 11645, 11647, 11649, 11651, 11653, 11655, 11657, 11659, 11661, 11663, 11665, 11667, 11669, 11671, 11673, 11675, 11677, 11679, 11681, 11683, 11685, 11687, 11689, 11691, 11693, 11695, 11697, 11699, 11701, 11703, 11705, 11707, 11709, 11711, 11713, 11715, 11717, 11719, 11721, 11723, 11725, 11727, 11729, 11731
11755, 11757, 11759, 11761, 11763, 11765, 11767, 11769,
11771, 11773, 11775, 11777, 11779, 11781, 11783, 11785,
11787, 11789, 11791, 11793, 11795, 11797, 11799, 11801,
11803, 11805, 11807, 11809, 11811, 11813, 11815, 11817,
11819, 11821, 11823, 11825, 11827, 11829, 11831, 11833,
11835, 11837, 11839, 11841, 11843, 11845, 11847, 11849,
11851, 11853, 11855, 11857, 11859, 11861, 11863, 11865,
NUE_OE AT2G2949
41 A. th. 11753 cytoplasmic 11867, 11869, 11871, 11873, 11875, 11877, 11879, 11881,
X3 0
11883, 11885, 11887, 11889, 11891, 11893, 11895, 11897,
11899, 11901, 11903, 11905, 11907, 11909, 11911, 11913,
11915, 11917, 11919, 11921, 11923, 11925, 11927, 11929,
11931, 11933, 11935, 11937, 11939, 11941, 11943, 11945,
11947, 11949, 11951, 11953, 11955, 11957, 11959, 11961,
11963, 11965, 11967, 11969, 11971, 11973, 11975, 11977,
11979, 11981, 11983, 11985, 11987, 11989, 11991, 11993,
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
11995, 11997 11999, 12001 12003, 12005, 12007 12009, 12011, 12013 12015, 12017 12019, 12021, 12023 12025, 12027, 12029 12031, 12033 12035, 12037, 12039 12041, 12043, 12045 12047, 12049 12051, 12053, 12055 12057, 12059, 12061 12063, 12065 12067, 12069, 12071 12073, 12075, 12077 12079, 12081 12083, 12085, 12087 12089, 12091, 12093 12095, 12097 12099, 12101, 12103 12105, 12107, 12109 12111, 12113 12115, 12117, 12119 12121, 12123, 12125 12127, 12129 12131, 12133
12199, 12201 12203, 12205 12207, 12209, 12211 12213, 12215, 12217 12219, 12221 12223, 12225, 12227 12229, 12231, 12233 12235, 12237 12239, 12241, 12243 12245,
NUE_OE AT2G3530
42 A. th. 12197 cytoplasmic 12247, 12249 12251, 12253 12255, 12257, 12259 12261,
X3 0
12263, 12265 12267, 12269 12271, 12273, 12275 12277, 12279, 12281 12283, 12285 12287, 12289, 12291 12293, 12295, 12297 12299, 12301 12303
12319, 12321 12323, 12325 12327, 12329, 12331 12333, 12335, 12337 12339, 12341 12343, 12345, 12347 12349, 12351, 12353 12355, 12357 12359, 12361, 12363 12365, 12367, 12369 12371, 12373 12375, 12377, 12379 12381, 12383, 12385 12387, 12389 12391, 12393, 12395 12397,
NUE_OE AT2G3593
43 A. th. 12317 cytoplasmic 12399, 12401 12403, 12405 12407, 12409, 12411 12413,
X3 0
12415, 12417 12419, 12421 12423, 12425, 12427 12429, 12431, 12433 12435, 12437 12439, 12441, 12443 12445, 12447, 12449 12451, 12453 12455, 12457, 12459 12461, 12463, 12465 12467, 12469 12471, 12473, 12475 12477, 12479, 12481 12483, 12485 12487, 12489, 12491 12493,
AppliOrgaLead
Hit Project Locus Target SEQ IDs of Polypeptide Homologs cation nism SEQ ID
12495, 12497, 12499, 12501, 12503, 12505, 12507, 12509, 12511, 12513, 12515, 12517, 12519, 12521, 12523, 12525, 12527, 12529, 12531, 12533, 12535, 12537, 12539, 12541, 12543, 12545, 12547, 12549, 12551, 12553, 12555, 12557
12576, 12578, 12580, 12582, 12584, 12586, 12588, 12590, 12592, 12594, 12596, 12598, 12600, 12602, 12604, 12606,
NUE_OE AT3G0462
44 A. th. 12574 cytoplasmic 12608, 12610, 12612, 12614, 12616, 12618, 12620, 12622,
X3 0
12624, 12626, 12628, 12630, 12632, 12634, 12636, 12638, 12640, 12642, 12644
12671, 12673, 12675, 12677, 12679, 12681, 12683, 12685, 12687, 12689, 12691, 12693, 12695, 12697, 12699, 12701, 12703, 12705, 12707, 12709, 12711, 12713, 12715, 12717, 12719, 12721, 12723, 12725, 12727, 12729, 12731, 12733, 12735, 12737, 12739, 12741, 12743, 12745, 12747, 12749, 12751, 12753, 12755, 12757, 12759, 12761, 12763, 12765, 12767, 12769, 12771, 12773, 12775, 12777, 12779, 12781, 12783, 12785, 12787, 12789, 12791, 12793, 12795, 12797,
NUE_OE AT3G2096
45 A. th. 12669 cytoplasmic 12799, 12801, 12803, 12805, 12807, 12809, 12811, 12813,
X3 0
12815, 12817, 12819, 12821, 12823, 12825, 12827, 12829, 12831, 12833, 12835, 12837, 12839, 12841, 12843, 12845, 12847, 12849, 12851, 12853, 12855, 12857, 12859, 12861, 12863, 12865, 12867, 12869, 12871, 12873, 12875, 12877, 12879, 12881, 12883, 12885, 12887, 12889, 12891, 12893, 12895, 12897, 12899, 12901, 12903, 12905, 12907, 12909, 12911, 12913, 12915, 12917, 12919, 12921, 12923, 12925, 12927, 12929, 12931, 12933, 12935, 12937
46 NUE OE AT3G6158 A. th. 13132 cytoplasmic 13134, 13136, 13138, 13140, 13142, 13144, 13146, 13148,
Figure imgf000293_0001
Figure imgf000294_0001
Table MB: Amino acid sequence ID numbers
Figure imgf000295_0001
Figure imgf000296_0001
Figure imgf000297_0001
Figure imgf000298_0001
Figure imgf000299_0001
Figure imgf000300_0001
Figure imgf000301_0001
Table III: Primer nucleic acid sequence ID numbers
Figure imgf000302_0001
Figure imgf000303_0001
Figure imgf000304_0001
Figure imgf000305_0001
Figure imgf000306_0001
Table IV: Consensus amino acid sequence ID numbers
Figure imgf000307_0001
Figure imgf000308_0001
Figure imgf000309_0001
Figure imgf000310_0001
Figure imgf000311_0001

Claims

A method for producing a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding wild type plant whereby the method comprises at least the following step: increasing or generating in a plant or a part thereof one or more activities of a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'- phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01 .1 -protein, 60952769. R01 .1 - protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300- protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S- transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S- ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein.
A method for producing a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding wild type plant whereby the method comprises at least one of the steps selected from the group consisting of:
(i) increasing or generating the activity of a polypeptide comprising a polypeptide, a consensus sequence or at least one polypeptide motif as depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II or of table IV, respectively;
(ii) increasing or generating the activity of an expression product encoded by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 or 7 of table I, and
(iii) increasing or generating the activity of a functional equivalent of (i) or (ii).
The method of claim 1 or 2, comprising
(i) increasing or generating of the expression of at least one nucleic acid molecule; and/or
(ii) increasing or generating the expression of an expression product encoded by at least one nucleic acid molecule; and/or
(iii) increasing or generating one or more activities of an expression product encoded by at least one nucleic acid molecule;
whereby the at least one nucleic acid molecule comprises a nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of:
(a) a nucleic acid molecule encoding the polypeptide shown in column 5 or 7 of table II;
(b) a nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I; (c) a nucleic acid molecule, which, as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be derived from a polypeptide sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof ;
(d) a nucleic acid molecule having around 70 % or more identity with the nucleic acid
molecule sequence of a polynucleotide comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(e) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having around 70 % or more identity with the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of (a) to (c) and having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(f) a nucleic acid molecule which hybridizes with a nucleic acid molecule of (a) to (c) under stringent hybridization conditions and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(g) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which can be isolated with the aid of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies made against a polypeptide encoded by one of the nucleic acid molecules of (a) to (e) and having the activity represented by the nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I;
(h) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence or one or more polypeptide motifs as shown in column 7 of table IV and preferably having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV;
(i) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein as depicted in column 5 of table II and conferring increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(j) nucleic acid molecule which comprises a polynucleotide, which is obtained by amplifying a cDNA library or a genomic library using the primers in column 7 of table III and preferably having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV; and
k) a nucleic acid molecule which is obtainable by screening a suitable nucleic acid library under stringent hybridization conditions with a probe comprising a complementary sequence of a nucleic acid molecule of (a) or (b) or with a fragment thereof, having around 50 nt or more of a nucleic acid molecule complementary to a nucleic acid molecule sequence characterized in (a) to (e) and encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II.
A method for producing a transgenic plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant, comprising transforming a plant cell or a plant cell nucleus or a plant tissue with a nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of: (a) a nucleic acid molecule encoding the polypeptide shown in column 5 or 7 of table II;
(b) a nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I;
(c) a nucleic acid molecule, which, as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be derived from a polypeptide sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II and con- fers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof ;
(d) a nucleic acid molecule having at least around 70 % identity with the nucleic acid molecule sequence of a polynucleotide comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(e) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having at least around 70 % identity with the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of (a) to (c) and having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(f) a nucleic acid molecule which hybridizes with a nucleic acid molecule of (a) to (c) under stringent hybridization conditions and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof; (g) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which can be isolated with the aid of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies made against a polypeptide encoded by one of the nucleic acid molecules of (a) to (e) and having the activity represented by the nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I;
(h) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence or one or more polypeptide motifs as shown in column 7 of table IV and preferably having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV;
(i) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein as depicted in column 5 of table II and conferring increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(j) nucleic acid molecule which comprises a polynucleotide, which is obtained by amplifying a cDNA library or a genomic library using the primers in column 7 of table III and preferably having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV; and
k) a nucleic acid molecule which is obtainable by screening a suitable nucleic acid library under stringent hybridization conditions with a probe comprising a complementary sequence of a nucleic acid molecule of (a) or (b) or with a fragment thereof, having at least around 400 nt of a nucleic acid molecule complementary to a nucleic acid mole- cule sequence characterized in (a) to (e) and encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II, and regenerating a transgenic plant from that transformed plant cell nucleus, plant cell or plant tissue with increased yield. A method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the one or more activities increased or generated is of a polypeptide selected form the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate- dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01 .1 -protein, 60952769. R01 .1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein,
CDS5401_TRUNCATED-protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, galactinol synthase, glutathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin- related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate- zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isom- erase, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein.
The method of any one of claims 1 to 5 resulting in increased yield compared to a corresponding wild type plant under standard growth conditions, low temperature, drought or abiotic stress conditions.
An isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of:
(a) a nucleic acid molecule encoding the polypeptide shown in column 5 or 7 of table II B;
(b) a nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I B;
(c) a nucleic acid molecule, which, as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be derived from a polypeptide sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II and confers increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(d) a nucleic acid molecule having at least about 70 % identity with the nucleic acid molecule sequence of a polynucleotide comprising the nucleic acid molecule shown in column 5 or 7 of table I and conferring increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(e) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having at least about 70 % identity with the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of (a) to (c) and having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I and confers increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof; (f) nucleic acid molecule which hybridizes with a nucleic acid molecule of (a) to (c) under stringent hybridization conditions and confers increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(g) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide which can be isolated with the aid of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies made against a polypeptide encoded by one of the nucleic acid molecules of (a) to (e) and having the activity represented by the nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table I;
(h) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the consensus sequence or one or more polypeptide motifs as shown in column 7 of table IV and preferably having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV;
(i) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having the activity represented by a protein as depicted in column 5 of table II and confers an increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof;
(j) nucleic acid molecule which comprises a polynucleotide, which is obtained by amplifying a cDNA library or a genomic library using the primers in column 7 of table III and preferably having the activity represented by a nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide as depicted in column 5 of table II or IV; and
(k) a nucleic acid molecule which is obtainable by screening a suitable nucleic acid library under stringent hybridization conditions with a probe comprising a complementary sequence of a nucleic acid molecule of (a) or (b) or with a fragment thereof, having at least 400 nt, of a nucleic acid molecule complementary to a nucleic acid molecule sequence characterized in (a) to (e) and encoding a polypeptide having the activity repre- sented by a protein comprising a polypeptide as depicted in column 5 of table II.
8. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 7, whereby the nucleic acid molecule according to (a) to (k) is at least in one or more nucleotides different from the sequence depicted in column 5 or 7 of table I A and preferably encodes a protein which differs at least in one or more amino acids from the protein sequences depicted in column 5 or 7 of table II A.
9. A nucleic acid construct which confers the expression of said nucleic acid molecule of claim 7 or 8, comprising one or more regulatory elements. 10. A vector comprising the nucleic acid molecule as claimed in claim 7 or 8 or the nucleic acid construct of claim 9.
1 1 . A process for producing a polypeptide, wherein the polypeptide is expressed in the host nucleus or host cell as claimed in claim 1 1 .
12. A polypeptide produced by the process as claimed in claim 12 or encoded by the nucleic acid molecule as claimed in claim 7 or 8 or as depicted in table II B, whereby the polypeptide distinguishes over the sequence as shown in table II A by one or more amino acids.
13. An antibody, which binds specifically to the polypeptide as claimed in claim 13.
14. A plant cell nucleus, plant cell, plant tissue, propagation material, pollen, progeny, harvested material or a plant comprising the nucleic acid molecule as claimed in claim 7 or 8 or the host nucleus or the host cell as claimed in claim 1 1 .
15. A plant cell nucleus, a plant cell, a plant tissue, propagation material, seed, pollen, progeny, or a plant part, resulting in a plant with increase yield after regeneration; or a plant with increased yield; or a part thereof; with said yield increased as compared to a corresponding wild type produced by a method according to any of claims 1 to 6 or being transformed with the nucleic acid molecule as claimed in claim 7 or 8 or the or the nucleic acid construct of claim 9.
16. The transgenic plant cell nucleus, transgenic plant cell, transgenic plant or part thereof of claim 15 derived from a monocotyledonous plant.
17. The transgenic plant cell nucleus, transgenic plant cell, transgenic plant or part thereof of claim 15 derived from a dicotyledonous plant. 18. The transgenic plant cell nucleus, transgenic plant cell, transgenic plant or part thereof of claim 15, wherein the corresponding plant is selected from the group consisting of corn (maize), wheat, rye, oat, triticale, rice, barley, soybean, peanut, cotton, oil seed rape, including canola and winter oil seed rape, manihot, pepper, sunflower, sugar cane, sugar beet, flax, borage, safflower, linseed, primrose, rapeseed, turnip rape, tagetes, solanaceous plants comprising potato, tobacco, eggplant, tomato; Vicia species, pea, alfalfa, coffee, cacao, tea,
Salix species, oil palm, coconut, perennial grass, forage crops and Arabidopsis thaliana.
19. The transgenic plant cell nucleus, transgenic plant cell, transgenic plant or part thereof of claim 15, wherein the plant is selected from the group consisting of corn, soy, oil seed rape (including canola and winter oil seed rape), cotton, wheat and rice.
20. A transgenic plant comprising one or more of plant cell nuclei or plant cells, progeny, seed or pollen or produced by a transgenic plant of any of claims 14 to 19. 21 . A transgenic plant, transgenic plant cell nucleus, transgenic plant cell, plant comprising one or more of such transgenic plant cell nuclei or plant cells, progeny, seed or pollen derived from or produced by a transgenic plant of any of claims 6 to 9, wherein said transgenic plant, transgenic plant cell nucleus, transgenic plant cell, plant comprising one or more of such transgenic plant cell nuclei or plant cells, progeny, seed or pollen is genetically homozygous for a transgene conferring increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof.
22. A process for the identification of a compound conferring increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof in a plant cell, a transgenic plant or a part thereof, a transgenic plant or a part thereof, comprising the steps:
(a) culturing a plant cell; a transgenic plant or a part thereof expressing the polypeptide of claim 12 and a readout system capable of interacting with the polypeptide under suit- able conditions which permit the interaction of the polypeptide with said readout system in the presence of a compound or a sample comprising a plurality of compounds and capable of providing a detectable signal in response to the binding of a compound to said polypeptide under conditions which permit the expression of said readout system and of the polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of claim 12;
(b) identifying if the compound is an effective agonist by detecting the presence or absence or increase of a signal produced by said readout system.
23. A method for the production of an agricultural composition comprising the steps of the
method of claim 22 and formulating the compound identified in claim 22 in a form acceptable for an application in agriculture.
24. A composition comprising the nucleic acid molecule of claim 7 or 8, the nucleic acid construct of claim 9, the vector of claim 10, the polypeptide of claim 12, the compound of claim 22, and/or the antibody of claim 13; and optionally an agriculturally acceptable carrier.
25. The polypeptide of claim 12 or the nucleic acid molecule which is selected from yeast or E. coli.
26. Use of the nucleic acids of claim 7 or 8 for preparing a plant with an increased yield as com- pared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant.
27. Use of the nucleic acids according to claim 7 or 8 as markers for identification or selection of a plant with increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant.
28. Use of the nucleic acids according to claim 17 or parts thereof as markers for detection of yield increase in plants or plant cells.
29. Method for the identification of a plant with an increased yield comprising screening a popu- lation of one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof for an activity of a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4- diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01 .1 -protein, 60952769. R01 .1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 - protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED- protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, ga- lactinol synthase, glutathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mito- chondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis- trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein, comparing the level of activity with the activity level in a reference; identifying one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof with the activity increased compared to the reference, optionally producing a plant from the identified plant cell nuclei, cell or tissue.
Method for the identification of a plant with an increased yield comprising screening a population of one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof for the expression level of an nucleic acid coding for an polypeptide conferring an activity from a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, 3- ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate phosphatase, 4-diphosphocytidyl- 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase, 50S chloroplast ribosomal protein L21 , 57972199. R01.1 - protein, 60952769. R01 .1 -protein, 60S ribosomal protein, ABC transporter family protein, AP2 domain-containing transcription factor, argonaute protein, AT1 G29250.1 -protein, AT1 G53885-protein, AT2G35300-protein, AT3G04620-protein, AT4G01870-protein, AT5G42380-protein, AT5G47440-protein, CDS5394-protein, CDS5401_TRUNCATED- protein, cold response protein, cullin, Cytochrome P450, delta-8 sphingolipid desaturase, ga- lactinol synthase, glutathione-S-transferase , GTPase, haspin-related protein, heat shock protein, heat shock transcription factor, histone H2B, jasmonate-zim-domain protein, mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase, Oligosaccharyltransferase, OS02G44730-protein, Oxygen-evolving enhancer protein, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase, peptidyl-prolyl cis- trans isomerase family protein, plastid lipid-associated protein, Polypyrimidine tract binding protein, PRLI-interacting factor, protein kinase, protein kinase family protein, rubisco subunit binding-protein beta subunit, serine acetyltransferase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, small heat shock protein, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, sugar transporter, Thioredoxin H-type, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, ubiquitin-protein ligase, universal stress protein family protein, and Vacuolar protein, comparing the level of expression with a reference; identifying one or more plant cell nuclei, plant cells, plant tissues or plants or parts thereof with the expression level increased compared to the reference, optionally producing a plant from the identified plant cell nuclei, cell or tissue.
The method of any one of claims 1 to 6 or the plant according to any one of claims 14 to 20, wherein said plant shows an improved yield-related trait.
The method of any one of claims 1 to 6 or the plant according to any one of claims 14 or 15, wherein said plant shows an improved nutrient use efficiency and/or abiotic stress tolerance. 33 The method of any one of claims 1 to 6 or the plant according to any one of claims 14 to 20, wherein said plant shows an improved increased low temperature tolerance.
34. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6 or the plant according to any one of claims 14 to 20, wherein the plant shows an increase of harvestable yield.
35 The method of any one of claims 1 to 6 or the plant according to any one of claims 14 to 20, wherein the plant shows an improved wherein yield increase is calculated on a per plant basis or in relation to a specific arable area.
36. A method for increasing yield of a population of plants, comprising checking the growth temperature^) in the area for planting, comparing the temperatures with the optimal growth temperature of a plant species or a variety considered for planting, planting and growing the plant of any one of claims 14 to 20 or 31 to 35 if the growth temperature is not optimal for the planting and growing of the plant species or the variety considered for planting.
37. The method of the previous claims, comprising harvesting the plant or a part of the plant produced or planted and producing fuel with or from the harvested plant or part thereof.
38. The method of the previous claims, wherein the plant is plant useful for starch production, comprising harvesting plant part useful for starch isolation and isolating starch from this plant part.
39. A nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide comprising the Pfam domain PF01789.9 for the production of a plant with increased yield or a polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule.
40. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 39 encoding a polypeptide which is 75% or more identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.: 385 and which comprises the Pfam domain PF01789.9, conferring the increase of the yield of a plant or a polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule.
PCT/IB2010/055028 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 Plants with increased yield WO2011061656A1 (en)

Priority Applications (8)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
BR112012011641A BR112012011641A2 (en) 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 "method for producing a plant, isolated nucleic acid molecule, nucleic acid construct, vector, process for producing a polypeptide, polypeptide, antibody, plant cell nucleus, transgenic plant, process for identifying a compound , method for producing an agricultural composition, composition, use of nucleic acids, method for identifying a plant and method for increasing yield of a plant population "
AU2010320547A AU2010320547B2 (en) 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 Plants with increased yield
CN2010800615843A CN102770543A (en) 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 Plants with increased yield
DE112010004469T DE112010004469T5 (en) 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 Plants with increased yield
MX2012005719A MX2012005719A (en) 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 Plants with increased yield.
US13/510,220 US20120227134A1 (en) 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 Plants with Increased Yield
EP10831238.0A EP2501816A4 (en) 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 Plants with increased yield
CA2780707A CA2780707A1 (en) 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 Plants with increased yield

Applications Claiming Priority (12)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP09176253.4 2009-11-17
EP09176253 2009-11-17
US26215209P 2009-11-18 2009-11-18
US61/262,152 2009-11-18
US31641510P 2010-03-23 2010-03-23
US61/316,415 2010-03-23
EP10157353 2010-03-23
EP10157353.3 2010-03-23
US36656110P 2010-07-22 2010-07-22
EP10170505 2010-07-22
EP10170505.1 2010-07-22
US61/366,561 2010-07-22

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2011061656A1 true WO2011061656A1 (en) 2011-05-26

Family

ID=44059262

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/IB2010/055028 WO2011061656A1 (en) 2009-11-17 2010-11-05 Plants with increased yield

Country Status (9)

Country Link
US (1) US20120227134A1 (en)
EP (1) EP2501816A4 (en)
CN (1) CN102770543A (en)
AR (1) AR081092A1 (en)
AU (1) AU2010320547B2 (en)
CA (1) CA2780707A1 (en)
DE (1) DE112010004469T5 (en)
MX (1) MX2012005719A (en)
WO (1) WO2011061656A1 (en)

Cited By (19)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2013064411A1 (en) * 2011-11-01 2013-05-10 Firmenich Sa Cytochrome p450 and use thereof for the enzymatic oxidation of terpenes
CN103710316A (en) * 2013-12-13 2014-04-09 上海交通大学 Solanum chilense SCF complex CUL1 subunit protein sequence and nucleotide sequence
CN103748225A (en) * 2011-06-29 2014-04-23 不列颠哥伦比亚大学 Enhancing cell wall properties in plants or trees
EP2907376A1 (en) 2014-02-14 2015-08-19 Biogemma Method for plant improvement
EP3003013A4 (en) * 2013-06-05 2016-11-09 Yeda Res & Dev Plant with altered content of steroidal glycoalkaloids
DE102015016445A1 (en) 2015-12-21 2017-06-22 Kws Saat Se Restorer plant
DE102015017161A1 (en) 2015-12-21 2017-06-22 Kws Saat Se Restorer plant
WO2017114897A1 (en) * 2015-12-29 2017-07-06 Repsol, S.A. Modified thiolases capable of producing branched compounds and uses thereof
WO2018026717A1 (en) * 2016-08-01 2018-02-08 Aduro Biotech, Inc. Protein expression enhancer sequences and use thereof
US20180184604A1 (en) * 2015-09-08 2018-07-05 Rijk Zwaan Zaadteelt En Zaadhandel B.V. Modified cullin1 gene
WO2018215915A1 (en) * 2017-05-22 2018-11-29 Benson Hill Biosystems, Inc. Increasing plant growth and yield by using an abc transporter sequence
WO2019130018A1 (en) * 2017-12-25 2019-07-04 Institute Of Genetics And Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy Of Sciences Methods of increasing yield and/or abiotic stress tolerance
US10806119B2 (en) 2013-06-05 2020-10-20 Yeda Research And Development Co. Ltd. Plant with altered content of steroidal alkaloids
CN112794886A (en) * 2021-02-01 2021-05-14 中国农业大学 Lactobacillus plantarum LuxS protein, application thereof and lactobacillus plantarum like recombinant strain
US11078492B2 (en) 2011-11-28 2021-08-03 Evogene Ltd. Isolated polynucleotides and polypeptides, and methods of using same for increasing nitrogen use efficiency, yield, growth rate, vigor, biomass, oil content, and/or abiotic stress tolerance
CN115820895A (en) * 2022-07-27 2023-03-21 湖南农业大学 Molecular marker closely linked with chlorophyll content of corn and application thereof
US11840693B2 (en) 2015-12-21 2023-12-12 KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA Restorer plants
CN117247964A (en) * 2023-09-04 2023-12-19 南京农业大学 Application of E3 ubiquitin ligase gene GmPUB20 capable of regulating and controlling soybean mosaic virus resistance
US12041907B2 (en) 2018-09-06 2024-07-23 Yeda Research And Development Co. Ltd. Cellulose-synthase-like enzymes and uses thereof

Families Citing this family (26)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US11685926B2 (en) 2007-02-01 2023-06-27 Enza Zaden Beheer B.V. Disease resistant onion plants
BR122021002248B1 (en) * 2010-12-22 2022-02-15 Evogene Ltd METHOD TO INCREASE TOLERANCE TO ABIOTIC STRESS, PRODUCTION, BIOMASS, AND/OR GROWTH RATE OF A PLANT
AR094596A1 (en) * 2013-01-28 2015-08-12 Basf Plant Science Co Gmbh PLANTS THAT HAVE ONE OR MORE IMPROVED FEATURES RELATED TO PERFORMANCE AND A METHOD FOR PRODUCING
US9573980B2 (en) 2013-03-15 2017-02-21 Spogen Biotech Inc. Fusion proteins and methods for stimulating plant growth, protecting plants from pathogens, and immobilizing Bacillus spores on plant roots
ES2886551T3 (en) 2014-06-18 2021-12-20 Enza Zaden Beheer Bv Plants resistant to Phytophthora belonging to the Solanaceae family
BR122023020794A2 (en) 2014-09-17 2024-01-23 Spogen Biotech Inc. RECOMBINANT BACILLUS BACTERIA AND ITS FORMULATION
CN104293944A (en) * 2014-10-10 2015-01-21 东北农业大学 CsGolS1 as marker gene for identifying whether cucumbers suffer from low nitrate nitrogen stress and application of CsGolS1
EP4349803A2 (en) 2016-03-16 2024-04-10 Spogen Biotech Inc. Methods for promoting plant health using free enzymes and microorganisms that overexpress enzymes
ES2930058T3 (en) 2016-04-01 2022-12-05 Kite Pharma Inc Chimeric receptors and methods of using the same
PT3436079T (en) 2016-04-01 2021-10-06 Kite Pharma Inc Chimeric antigen and t cell receptors and methods of use
CN117903307A (en) * 2016-04-01 2024-04-19 凯德药业股份有限公司 BCMA binding molecules and methods of use thereof
CN106173728A (en) * 2016-07-07 2016-12-07 武汉御花堂绿色科技有限公司 A kind of enzyme beverage with Fructus Cucurbitae moschatae as main material and preparation method thereof
CN107236026B (en) * 2017-07-03 2020-12-29 河北师范大学 GBP protein and application of coding gene thereof in regulating and controlling plant yield
BR112020005730A2 (en) 2017-09-20 2020-10-20 Spogen Biotech Inc. fusion proteins, member of the bacillus cereus family, fragments of exosporium, formulation, plant seed and methods to stimulate plant growth and to deliver an enzyme
WO2020163251A1 (en) * 2019-02-05 2020-08-13 Pivot Bio, Inc. Improved consistency of crop yield through biological nitrogen fixation
CN110592105A (en) * 2019-10-31 2019-12-20 吉林农业大学 Soybean sHSP16.9 gene and application thereof
CN110577956A (en) * 2019-10-31 2019-12-17 吉林农业大学 Soybean sHSP26 gene and application thereof
CN110656115A (en) * 2019-10-31 2020-01-07 吉林农业大学 Soybean GmHsps _ p23-like gene and application thereof
CN110923253B (en) * 2019-12-19 2021-05-11 浙江大学 Application of OsPTP1 in efficient plant phosphorus breeding
CN111676227B (en) * 2020-04-14 2022-04-29 南京农业大学 Genetic engineering application of soybean ribosomal protein coding gene GmRPL12
CN112442506B (en) * 2020-12-21 2023-01-03 浙江大学 Arabidopsis thaliana clubroot disease candidate gene AT2G35930 and application thereof
CN113801884B (en) * 2021-08-11 2023-09-12 云南省烟草农业科学研究院 NtJAZ1 gene mutant for improving nicotine content of tobacco leaves and application thereof
CN114214341B (en) * 2021-12-30 2023-12-26 山西大学 Application of tomato SlSERAT1, 1 gene or fragment thereof in plant development process
CN115807014A (en) * 2022-07-01 2023-03-17 西南大学 Application of silkworm fatty acid dehydrogenase Bmdesat5
CN116171856B (en) * 2023-02-17 2023-08-01 中国科学院华南植物园 Method for increasing stevioside content in stevia rebaudiana
CN118064448B (en) * 2024-02-20 2024-08-20 东北农业大学 Application of waxy synthetic gene PpKCS in regulation and control of drought tolerance of bluegrass on grassland

Citations (56)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4024222A (en) 1973-10-30 1977-05-17 The Johns Hopkins University Nucleic acid complexes
US4283393A (en) 1979-03-13 1981-08-11 Merck & Co., Inc. Topical application of interferon inducers
WO1984002913A1 (en) 1983-01-17 1984-08-02 Monsanto Co Chimeric genes suitable for expression in plant cells
EP0249676A2 (en) 1986-01-28 1987-12-23 Sandoz Ltd. Method for the expression of genes in plants
US4801340A (en) 1986-06-12 1989-01-31 Namiki Precision Jewel Co., Ltd. Method for manufacturing permanent magnets
EP0335528A2 (en) 1988-03-29 1989-11-15 E.I. Du Pont De Nemours And Company DNA promoter fragments from wheat
EP0388186A1 (en) 1989-03-17 1990-09-19 E.I. Du Pont De Nemours And Company External regulation of gene expression
US4962028A (en) 1986-07-09 1990-10-09 Dna Plant Technology Corporation Plant promotors
EP0397687A1 (en) 1987-12-21 1990-11-22 Upjohn Co Agrobacterium mediated transformation of germinating plant seeds.
US4987071A (en) 1986-12-03 1991-01-22 University Patents, Inc. RNA ribozyme polymerases, dephosphorylases, restriction endoribonucleases and methods
EP0424047A1 (en) 1989-10-17 1991-04-24 Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Tissue culture method for transformation of plant cells
US5034323A (en) 1989-03-30 1991-07-23 Dna Plant Technology Corporation Genetic engineering of novel plant phenotypes
WO1991013980A1 (en) 1990-03-16 1991-09-19 Calgene, Inc. Novel sequences preferentially expressed in early seed development and methods related thereto
US5086169A (en) 1989-04-20 1992-02-04 The Research Foundation Of State University Of New York Isolated pollen-specific promoter of corn
US5116742A (en) 1986-12-03 1992-05-26 University Patents, Inc. RNA ribozyme restriction endoribonucleases and methods
US5164310A (en) 1988-06-01 1992-11-17 The Texas A&M University System Method for transforming plants via the shoot apex
WO1993007256A1 (en) 1991-10-07 1993-04-15 Ciba-Geigy Ag Particle gun for introducing dna into intact cells
US5231020A (en) 1989-03-30 1993-07-27 Dna Plant Technology Corporation Genetic engineering of novel plant phenotypes
WO1993021334A1 (en) 1992-04-13 1993-10-28 Zeneca Limited Dna constructs and plants incorporating them
WO1994000977A1 (en) 1992-07-07 1994-01-20 Japan Tobacco Inc. Method of transforming monocotyledon
US5352605A (en) 1983-01-17 1994-10-04 Monsanto Company Chimeric genes for transforming plant cells using viral promoters
WO1995006722A1 (en) 1993-09-03 1995-03-09 Japan Tobacco Inc. Method of transforming monocotyledon by using scutellum of immature embryo
US5412085A (en) 1992-07-09 1995-05-02 Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. Pollen-specific promoter from maize
WO1995014098A1 (en) 1993-11-19 1995-05-26 Biotechnology Research And Development Corporation Chimeric regulatory regions and gene cassettes for expression of genes in plants
WO1995015389A2 (en) 1993-12-02 1995-06-08 Olsen Odd Arne Promoter
WO1995019443A2 (en) 1994-01-13 1995-07-20 Ciba-Geigy Ag Chemically regulatable and anti-pathogenic dna sequences and uses thereof
WO1995019431A1 (en) 1994-01-18 1995-07-20 The Scripps Research Institute Zinc finger protein derivatives and methods therefor
WO1995023230A1 (en) 1994-02-24 1995-08-31 Olsen Odd Arne Promoter from a lipid transfer protein gene
US5455818A (en) 1992-01-22 1995-10-03 Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha Optical recording medium
US5470359A (en) 1994-04-21 1995-11-28 Pioneer Hi-Bred Internation, Inc. Regulatory element conferring tapetum specificity
US5496698A (en) 1992-08-26 1996-03-05 Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Method of isolating ribozyme targets
US5504200A (en) 1983-04-15 1996-04-02 Mycogen Plant Science, Inc. Plant gene expression
US5510474A (en) 1988-05-17 1996-04-23 Mycogen Plant Science, Inc. Plant ubiquitin promoter system
US5565350A (en) 1993-12-09 1996-10-15 Thomas Jefferson University Compounds and methods for site directed mutations in eukaryotic cells
US5608152A (en) 1986-07-31 1997-03-04 Calgene, Inc. Seed-specific transcriptional regulation
US5693507A (en) 1988-09-26 1997-12-02 Auburn University Genetic engineering of plant chloroplasts
US5767366A (en) 1991-02-19 1998-06-16 Louisiana State University Board Of Supervisors, A Governing Body Of Louisiana State University Agricultural And Mechanical College Mutant acetolactate synthase gene from Ararbidopsis thaliana for conferring imidazolinone resistance to crop plants
US5773260A (en) 1989-09-25 1998-06-30 Innovir Laboratories, Inc. Ribozyme compositions and expression vectors
US5789538A (en) 1995-02-03 1998-08-04 Massachusetts Institute Of Technology Zinc finger proteins with high affinity new DNA binding specificities
US5795715A (en) 1991-12-18 1998-08-18 Cis Bio International Process for preparing double-stranded RNA, and its applications
WO1998045461A1 (en) 1997-04-09 1998-10-15 Rhone-Poulenc Agro An oleosin 5' regulatory region for the modification of plant seed lipid composition
WO1999016890A2 (en) 1997-09-30 1999-04-08 The Regents Of The University Of California Production of proteins in plant seeds
US5932479A (en) 1988-09-26 1999-08-03 Auburn University Genetic engineering of plant chloroplasts
US5990387A (en) 1988-06-10 1999-11-23 Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Stable transformation of plant cells
US6007988A (en) 1994-08-20 1999-12-28 Medical Research Council Binding proteins for recognition of DNA
US6025541A (en) 1994-09-08 2000-02-15 American Cyanamid Company Method of using as a selectable marker a nucleic acid containing AHAS promoter useful for expression of introduced genes in plants
WO2000015815A1 (en) 1998-09-14 2000-03-23 Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Rac-like genes from maize and methods of use
WO2000020622A1 (en) 1998-10-06 2000-04-13 Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Zinc finger peptide cleavage of nucleic acids
WO2000047754A1 (en) 1999-02-09 2000-08-17 Rhobio A method for inhibiting the expression of target genes in plants
WO2001002019A2 (en) 1999-06-30 2001-01-11 Imperial College Innovations Limited Control of gene expression
US20030126634A1 (en) * 1990-08-09 2003-07-03 Dekalb Genetics Corporation Methods and compositions for the increase of yield in plants
WO2004040973A2 (en) 2002-11-01 2004-05-21 New England Biolabs, Inc. Organellar targeting of rna and its use in the interruption of environmental gene flow
US6781033B2 (en) 2000-04-26 2004-08-24 Monsanto Technology Llc Method for the transformation of plant cell plastids
WO2008049183A1 (en) * 2006-10-27 2008-05-02 Alellyx S.A. Method for modifying plant architecture and enhancing plant biomass and/or sucrose yield
WO2008110876A1 (en) * 2007-03-14 2008-09-18 Aep Advanced Ecopower Patents Sa Mutagenized tobacco plant as seed culture for the production of oil for energetic, industrial and alimentary uses
WO2009037329A2 (en) * 2007-09-21 2009-03-26 Basf Plant Science Gmbh Plants with increased yield

Family Cites Families (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3843628A1 (en) 1988-12-21 1990-07-05 Inst Genbiologische Forschung Wound-inducible and potato-tuber-specific transcriptional regulation
US5187267A (en) 1990-06-19 1993-02-16 Calgene, Inc. Plant proteins, promoters, coding sequences and use
US5576198A (en) 1993-12-14 1996-11-19 Calgene, Inc. Controlled expression of transgenic constructs in plant plastids
GB9421286D0 (en) 1994-10-21 1994-12-07 Danisco Promoter
DE69632403T2 (en) 1995-08-10 2005-05-19 Rutgers University CELL CORE-CODED TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEM PLASTIC OF HIGHER PLANTS
WO2004053136A1 (en) * 2002-12-09 2004-06-24 Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt.Ltd. RICE CONFERRING RESISTANCE TO ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS BY TARGETING MnSOD TO THE CHLOROPLAST
JP2005130770A (en) * 2003-10-30 2005-05-26 Ajinomoto Co Inc Potato increased in starch level obtained per plant body and method for creating the same
GB0421241D0 (en) * 2004-09-23 2004-10-27 Rothamsted Res Ltd Transgenic plants
AU2007299219A1 (en) * 2006-04-05 2008-03-27 Metanomics Gmbh Process for the production of a fine chemical
US8779239B2 (en) * 2009-05-04 2014-07-15 Pioneeri Hi-Bred International, Inc. Yield enhancement in plants by modulation of AP2 transcription factor

Patent Citations (66)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4130641A (en) 1973-10-30 1978-12-19 Ts O Paul O P Induction of interferon production by modified nucleic acid complexes
US4024222A (en) 1973-10-30 1977-05-17 The Johns Hopkins University Nucleic acid complexes
US4283393A (en) 1979-03-13 1981-08-11 Merck & Co., Inc. Topical application of interferon inducers
US5352605A (en) 1983-01-17 1994-10-04 Monsanto Company Chimeric genes for transforming plant cells using viral promoters
WO1984002913A1 (en) 1983-01-17 1984-08-02 Monsanto Co Chimeric genes suitable for expression in plant cells
US5504200A (en) 1983-04-15 1996-04-02 Mycogen Plant Science, Inc. Plant gene expression
EP0249676A2 (en) 1986-01-28 1987-12-23 Sandoz Ltd. Method for the expression of genes in plants
US4801340A (en) 1986-06-12 1989-01-31 Namiki Precision Jewel Co., Ltd. Method for manufacturing permanent magnets
US4962028A (en) 1986-07-09 1990-10-09 Dna Plant Technology Corporation Plant promotors
US5608152A (en) 1986-07-31 1997-03-04 Calgene, Inc. Seed-specific transcriptional regulation
US4987071A (en) 1986-12-03 1991-01-22 University Patents, Inc. RNA ribozyme polymerases, dephosphorylases, restriction endoribonucleases and methods
US6025167A (en) 1986-12-03 2000-02-15 Competitive Technologies, Inc. RNA ribozyme polymerases, dephosphorylases, restriction endoribonucleases and methods
US5116742A (en) 1986-12-03 1992-05-26 University Patents, Inc. RNA ribozyme restriction endoribonucleases and methods
EP0397687A1 (en) 1987-12-21 1990-11-22 Upjohn Co Agrobacterium mediated transformation of germinating plant seeds.
US5169770A (en) 1987-12-21 1992-12-08 The University Of Toledo Agrobacterium mediated transformation of germinating plant seeds
US5376543A (en) 1987-12-21 1994-12-27 The University Of Toledo Agrobacterium mediated transformation of germinating plant seeds
EP0335528A2 (en) 1988-03-29 1989-11-15 E.I. Du Pont De Nemours And Company DNA promoter fragments from wheat
US6020190A (en) 1988-05-17 2000-02-01 Mycogen Plant Science, Inc. Plant ubiquitin promoter system
US5510474A (en) 1988-05-17 1996-04-23 Mycogen Plant Science, Inc. Plant ubiquitin promoter system
US5164310A (en) 1988-06-01 1992-11-17 The Texas A&M University System Method for transforming plants via the shoot apex
US5990387A (en) 1988-06-10 1999-11-23 Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Stable transformation of plant cells
US5932479A (en) 1988-09-26 1999-08-03 Auburn University Genetic engineering of plant chloroplasts
US5693507A (en) 1988-09-26 1997-12-02 Auburn University Genetic engineering of plant chloroplasts
EP0388186A1 (en) 1989-03-17 1990-09-19 E.I. Du Pont De Nemours And Company External regulation of gene expression
US5283184A (en) 1989-03-30 1994-02-01 Dna Plant Technology Corporation Genetic engineering of novel plant phenotypes
US5034323A (en) 1989-03-30 1991-07-23 Dna Plant Technology Corporation Genetic engineering of novel plant phenotypes
US5231020A (en) 1989-03-30 1993-07-27 Dna Plant Technology Corporation Genetic engineering of novel plant phenotypes
US5086169A (en) 1989-04-20 1992-02-04 The Research Foundation Of State University Of New York Isolated pollen-specific promoter of corn
US5773260A (en) 1989-09-25 1998-06-30 Innovir Laboratories, Inc. Ribozyme compositions and expression vectors
EP0424047A1 (en) 1989-10-17 1991-04-24 Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Tissue culture method for transformation of plant cells
US5322783A (en) 1989-10-17 1994-06-21 Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Soybean transformation by microparticle bombardment
WO1991013980A1 (en) 1990-03-16 1991-09-19 Calgene, Inc. Novel sequences preferentially expressed in early seed development and methods related thereto
US20030126634A1 (en) * 1990-08-09 2003-07-03 Dekalb Genetics Corporation Methods and compositions for the increase of yield in plants
US6225105B1 (en) 1991-02-19 2001-05-01 Louisiana State University Board Of Supervisors A Governing Body Of Louisiana State University Agricultural And Mechancial College Mutant acetolactate synthase gene from Arabidopsis thaliana for conferring imidazolinone resistance to crop plants
US5767366A (en) 1991-02-19 1998-06-16 Louisiana State University Board Of Supervisors, A Governing Body Of Louisiana State University Agricultural And Mechanical College Mutant acetolactate synthase gene from Ararbidopsis thaliana for conferring imidazolinone resistance to crop plants
WO1993007256A1 (en) 1991-10-07 1993-04-15 Ciba-Geigy Ag Particle gun for introducing dna into intact cells
US5795715A (en) 1991-12-18 1998-08-18 Cis Bio International Process for preparing double-stranded RNA, and its applications
US5455818A (en) 1992-01-22 1995-10-03 Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha Optical recording medium
WO1993021334A1 (en) 1992-04-13 1993-10-28 Zeneca Limited Dna constructs and plants incorporating them
WO1994000977A1 (en) 1992-07-07 1994-01-20 Japan Tobacco Inc. Method of transforming monocotyledon
US5545546A (en) 1992-07-09 1996-08-13 Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Pollen-specific promoter from maize
US5412085A (en) 1992-07-09 1995-05-02 Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. Pollen-specific promoter from maize
US5496698A (en) 1992-08-26 1996-03-05 Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Method of isolating ribozyme targets
WO1995006722A1 (en) 1993-09-03 1995-03-09 Japan Tobacco Inc. Method of transforming monocotyledon by using scutellum of immature embryo
WO1995014098A1 (en) 1993-11-19 1995-05-26 Biotechnology Research And Development Corporation Chimeric regulatory regions and gene cassettes for expression of genes in plants
WO1995015389A2 (en) 1993-12-02 1995-06-08 Olsen Odd Arne Promoter
US5565350A (en) 1993-12-09 1996-10-15 Thomas Jefferson University Compounds and methods for site directed mutations in eukaryotic cells
WO1995019443A2 (en) 1994-01-13 1995-07-20 Ciba-Geigy Ag Chemically regulatable and anti-pathogenic dna sequences and uses thereof
WO1995019431A1 (en) 1994-01-18 1995-07-20 The Scripps Research Institute Zinc finger protein derivatives and methods therefor
WO1995023230A1 (en) 1994-02-24 1995-08-31 Olsen Odd Arne Promoter from a lipid transfer protein gene
US5470359A (en) 1994-04-21 1995-11-28 Pioneer Hi-Bred Internation, Inc. Regulatory element conferring tapetum specificity
US6013453A (en) 1994-08-20 2000-01-11 Medical Research Council Binding proteins for recognition of DNA
US6007988A (en) 1994-08-20 1999-12-28 Medical Research Council Binding proteins for recognition of DNA
US6025541A (en) 1994-09-08 2000-02-15 American Cyanamid Company Method of using as a selectable marker a nucleic acid containing AHAS promoter useful for expression of introduced genes in plants
US5789538A (en) 1995-02-03 1998-08-04 Massachusetts Institute Of Technology Zinc finger proteins with high affinity new DNA binding specificities
WO1998045461A1 (en) 1997-04-09 1998-10-15 Rhone-Poulenc Agro An oleosin 5' regulatory region for the modification of plant seed lipid composition
WO1999016890A2 (en) 1997-09-30 1999-04-08 The Regents Of The University Of California Production of proteins in plant seeds
WO2000015815A1 (en) 1998-09-14 2000-03-23 Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Rac-like genes from maize and methods of use
WO2000020622A1 (en) 1998-10-06 2000-04-13 Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Zinc finger peptide cleavage of nucleic acids
WO2000047754A1 (en) 1999-02-09 2000-08-17 Rhobio A method for inhibiting the expression of target genes in plants
WO2001002019A2 (en) 1999-06-30 2001-01-11 Imperial College Innovations Limited Control of gene expression
US6781033B2 (en) 2000-04-26 2004-08-24 Monsanto Technology Llc Method for the transformation of plant cell plastids
WO2004040973A2 (en) 2002-11-01 2004-05-21 New England Biolabs, Inc. Organellar targeting of rna and its use in the interruption of environmental gene flow
WO2008049183A1 (en) * 2006-10-27 2008-05-02 Alellyx S.A. Method for modifying plant architecture and enhancing plant biomass and/or sucrose yield
WO2008110876A1 (en) * 2007-03-14 2008-09-18 Aep Advanced Ecopower Patents Sa Mutagenized tobacco plant as seed culture for the production of oil for energetic, industrial and alimentary uses
WO2009037329A2 (en) * 2007-09-21 2009-03-26 Basf Plant Science Gmbh Plants with increased yield

Non-Patent Citations (163)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
"Applications of HPLC in Biochemistry in: Laboratory Techniques in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology", vol. 17
"Applied Molecular Genetics of Fungi", CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, pages: 1 - 28
"Cloning Vectors", 1985, ELSEVIER
"Current Protocols in Molecular Biology", 1989, JOHN WILEY & SONS, pages: 6.3.1 - 6.3.6
"Essential Molecular Biology: A Practical Approach", 1991, IRL PRESS AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
"Methods in Molecular Biology", vol. 44, 1995, HUMANA PRESS, article "Agrobacterium protocols"
"Methods in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology", CRC PRESS, article CH. 6/7, pages: 71 - 119
"Nucleic Acids Hybridization: A Practical Approach", 1985, IRL PRESS AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
"Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology", 1993, C PRESS, pages: 71 - 119
"R6mpp Lexikon Biotechnologie", 1992, GEORG THIEME VERLAG, article "screening", pages: 701
"Transgenic Plants, Vol. 1, Engineering and Utilization", vol. 1, 1993, ACADEMIC PRESS, article "Vectors for Gene Transfer in Higher Plants", pages: 15 - 38
ALTSCHUL ET AL., NUCLEIC ACIDS RES., vol. 25, 1997, pages 3389
AN G.: "Methods in Molecular Biology", vol. 44, HUMANA PRESS, article "Agrobacterium Protocols", pages: 47 - 62
AN G.: "Methods in Molecular Biology", vol. 44, HUMANA PRESS, TOTOWA, article "Agrobacterium Protocols", pages: 47 - 62
AN G: "Agrobacterium Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology", vol. 44, HUMANA PRESS, pages: 47 - 62
AUSUBEL F.M. ET AL.: "Current Protocols in Molecular Biology", 1994, JOHN WILEY & SONS
AUSUBEL, F.M. ET AL.: "Current Protocols in Molecular Biology", 1994, JOHN WILEY & SONS
BABIC ET AL., PLANT CELL REP, vol. 17, 1998, pages 183
BAEUMLEIN ET AL., PLANT J., vol. 2, no. 2, 1992, pages 233
BARTEL D.; SZOSTAK J.W., SCIENCE, vol. 261, 1993, pages 1411
BAUMLEIN ET AL., MOL GEN GENET, vol. 225, no. 3, 1991, pages 459 - 67
BECKER D. ET AL., PLANT MOL. BIOL., vol. 20, 1992, pages 1195
BELTER P.A. ET AL.: "Bioseparations: downstream processing for biotechnology", 1988, JOHN WILEY AND SONS
BELTER, P.A. ET AL.: "Bioseparations: downstream processing for biotechnology", 1988, JOHN WILEY AND SONS
BENFEY ET AL., EMBO J., vol. 8, 1989, pages 2195
BEVAN ET AL., NUCL. ACIDS RES., vol. 12, 1984, pages 8711
BEVAN M.W., NUCL. ACID. RES., vol. 12, 1984, pages 8711
BEVAN, NUCLEIC ACID RESEARCH, vol. 12, 1984, pages 8711
BEVAN, NUCLEIC ACID RESEARCH, vol. 12, 1984, pages 8711 1
BRENT; PTASHNE, CELL, vol. 43, 1985, pages 729
BROWN D.C.W.; ATANASSOV A., PLANT CELL TISSUE ORGAN CULTURE, vol. 4, 1985, pages 111
BROWN; ATANASSOV, PLANT CELL TISSUE ORGAN CULTURE, vol. 4, 1985, pages 111 L
CALLIS ET AL., J. BIOL. CHEM., vol. 265, 1990, pages 12486
CHIRGWIN ET AL., BIOCHEMISTRY, vol. 18, 1979, pages 5294
CLOUGH J.C.; BENT A.F., PLANT J., vol. 16, 1998, pages 735
COLBERT ET AL., PLANT PHYSIOL, 2001, pages 126
COLE-STRAUSS ET AL., NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH, vol. 27, no. 5, 1999, pages 1323
COMAI ET AL., PLANT MOL BIOL, vol. 15, 1990, pages 373 - 383
COONEY ET AL., SCIENCE, vol. 241, 1988, pages 456
DATABASE GENPEPT 21 August 2009 (2009-08-21), XP008159853, Database accession no. 172153.1 *
DE BLOCK ET AL., PLANT PHYSIOL., vol. 91, 1989, pages 694
DE CASTRO SILVA FILHO ET AL., PLANT MOL. BIOL., vol. 30, 1996, pages 769
DEBLAERE ET AL., NUCL. ACIDS RES., vol. 13, 1994, pages 4777
DEBLAERE ET AL., NUCL. ACIDS. RES., vol. 13, 1994, pages 4777
DECHOW F.J.: "Separation and purification techniques in biotechnology", 1989, NOYES PUBLICATIONS
DELLA-CIOPPA ET AL., PLANT. PHYSIOL., vol. 84, 1987, pages 965
EMANUELSSON ET AL.: "ChloroP, a neural network-based method for predicting chloroplast transit peptides and their cleavage sites", PROTEIN SCIENCE, vol. 8, 1999, pages 978 - 984
EMANUELSSON ET AL.: "Locating proteins in the cell using TargetP, SignalP, and related tools.", NATURE PROTOCOLS, vol. 2, 2007, pages 953 - 971, XP008097990, DOI: doi:10.1038/nprot.2007.131
EMANUELSSON ET AL.: "Predicting sub-cellular localization of proteins based on their N-terminal amino acid sequence", J.MOL. BIOL., vol. 300, 2000, pages 1005 - 1016
FALCIATORE ET AL., MARINE BIOTECHNOLOGY, vol. 1, no. 3, 1999, pages 239
FRANCK ET AL., CELL, vol. 21, 1980, pages 285
FREELING; WALBOT: "The maize handbook", 1993, SPRINGER VERLAG
FROMM ET AL., BIOTECH, vol. 8, 1990, pages 833
GALLIE ET AL., NUCL. ACIDS RES., vol. 15, 1987, pages 8693
GALLIE ET AL., NUCL. ACIDS RESEARCH, vol. 15, 1987, pages 8693
GATZ ET AL., PLANT J., vol. 2, 1992, pages 397
GATZ, ANNU. REV. PLANT PHYSIOL. PLANT MOL. BIOL., vol. 48, 1997, pages 89
GAULTIER ET AL., NUCLEIC ACIDS. RES., vol. 15, 1987, pages 6625
GELVIN, STANTON B.; SCHILPEROORT ROBERT A: "Plant Molecular Biology Manual", 1995, KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBL.
GELVIN; SCHILPEROORT: "Plant Molecular Biology Manual", 1995, KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBL.
GIELEN ET AL., EMBO J., vol. 3, 1984, pages 835
GIELEN ET AL., EMBO J., vol. 3, September 1984 (1984-09-01), pages 835 - 846
GLICK B.R.; THOMPSON J.E.: "Methods in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology", 1993, CRC PRESS, pages: 360
GLICK BERNARD R.; THOMPSON JOHN E.: "Methods in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology", 1993, CRC PRESS, pages: 360
GOEDDEL: "Gene Expression Technology: Methods in Enzymology", vol. 185, 1990, ACADEMIC PRESS
GREENER A.; CALLAHAN M., STRATEGIES, vol. 7, 1994, pages 32
GRUBER; CROSBY: "Methods in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology", CRC PRESS, pages: 89 - 108
GU ET AL., BIOTECHNIQUES, vol. 17, 1994, pages 257
H6FGEN; WILLMITZER, NUCL. ACID RES., vol. 16, 1988, pages 9877
H6FGEN; WILLMITZER, PLANT SCIENCE, vol. 66, 1990, pages 221
HAJUKIEWICZ P. ET AL., PLANT MOL. BIOL., vol. 25, 1994, pages 989
HAJUKIEWICZ, P. ET AL., PLANT MOL. BIOL., vol. 25, 1994, pages 989
HARLOW; LANE: "Antibodies; A Laboratory Manual", 1988, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY
HASELHOFF; GERLACH, NATURE, vol. 334, 1988, pages 585
HAYASHI ET AL., SCIENCE, vol. 258, 1992, pages 1350
HEIJNE ET AL., PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY REPORTER, vol. 9, no. 2, 1991, pages 104
HELLENS ET AL., TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE, vol. 5, 2000, pages 446
HELLENS R.; MULLINEAUX P.; KLEE H., TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE, vol. 5, no. 10, 2000, pages 446
HIGGINS ET AL., CABIOS, vol. 5, 1989, pages 151
HOEKEMA ET AL., NATURE, vol. 303, 1983, pages 179
HONG ET AL., PLANT MOL BIOL, vol. 18, 1992, pages 663
I.JONASSEN: "Efficient discovery of conserved patterns using a pattern graph", CABIOS, February 1997 (1997-02-01)
I.JONASSEN; J.F.COLLINS; D.G.HIGGINS, PROTEIN SCIENCE, vol. 4, 1995, pages 1587 - 1595
INOUE ET AL., FEBS LETT., vol. 215, 1987, pages 327
INOUE ET AL., NUCLEIC ACIDS RES., vol. 15, 1987, pages 6131
ISALAN M. ET AL., BIOCHEMISTRY, vol. 37, no. 35, 1998, pages 12026
ISHIHARA,SEIKO ET AL.: "Distinct Functions for the Two PsbP-Like Proteins PPLl and PPL2 in the Chloroplast Thylakoid Lumen of Arabidopsis.", PLANT PHYSIOLOGY, vol. 145, November 2007 (2007-11-01), pages 668 - 679, XP008159864 *
J. MOL. EVOLUTION., vol. 25, 1987, pages 351
JAGENDORF; TAKABE, PLANT PHYSIOL, vol. 127, 2001, pages 1827
JENES B. ET AL.: "Transgenic Plants, Vol. 1, Engineering and Utilization", vol. 1, 1993, ACADEMIC PRESS, article "Techniques for Gene Transfer", pages: 128 - 143
KAWALLECK ET AL., PLANT. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, vol. 21, 1993, pages 673
KEEGSTRA ET AL., ANNU. REV. PLANT PHYSIOL. PLANT MOL. BIOL., vol. 40, 1989, pages 471
KELLY ET AL., BIO/TECHNOLOGY, vol. 10, 1992, pages 163
KENNEDY J.F.; CABRAL J.M.S.: "Recovery processes for biological materials", 1992, JOHN WILEY AND SONS
KERMODE ALLI-SON R., CRITICAL REVIEWS IN PLANT SCIENCE, vol. 15, no. 4, 1996, pages 285
KERMODE, CRIT. REV. PLANT SCI., vol. 15, no. 4, 1996, pages 285
KMIEC, GENE THERAPY AMERICAN SCIENTIST., vol. 87, no. 3, 1999, pages 240
KOCHEVENKO; WILLMITZER, PLANT PHYSIOL., vol. 132, no. 1, 2003, pages 174
KONCZ; SCHELL, MOL. GEN. GENET., vol. 204, 1986, pages 383
KONCZ; SCHELL, MOL. GEN. GENT., vol. 204, 1986, pages 383
KOORNEEF ET AL., MUTAT RES. MAR., vol. 93, no. 1, 1982
LAWRENCE ET AL., J. BIOL. CHEM., vol. 272, no. 33, 1997, pages 20357
LIGHTNER; CASPAR, METHODS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, vol. 82
LSHIDA ET AL., NATURE BIOTECH, vol. 14, 1996, pages 745
LSHIDA ET AL., NATURE BIOTECH., vol. 14, 1996, pages 745
LUBBEN ET AL., PHOTOSYNTHESIS RES., vol. 17, 1988, pages 173
MAIGA P., ANNU. REV. PLANT BIOL., vol. 55, 2004, pages 289
MCKERSIE ET AL., PLANT PHYSIOL, vol. 119, 1999, pages 839
MCKERSIE ET AL., PLANT PHYSIOL., vol. 119, 1999, pages 839
MIZOGUCHI ET AL., PROC NATL ACAD SCI U S A, vol. 93, 1996, pages 765
MLYNAROVA ET AL., PLANT CELL REPORT, vol. 13, 1994, pages 282
MOLONEY ET AL., PLANT CELL REPORT, vol. 8, 1989, pages 238
MOLONEY ET AL., PLANT CELL REPORTS, vol. 8, 1989, pages 238
MOORE M. ET AL., PROC. NATL. ACAD. SCI. USA, vol. 98, no. 4, 2001, pages 1432
MOORE M. ET AL., PROC. NATL. ACAD. SCI. USA, vol. 98, no. 4, 2001, pages 1437
MOSER ET AL., SCIENCE, vol. 238, 1987, pages 645
NAPOLI ET AL., THE PLANT CELL, vol. 2, 1990, pages 279
NEEDLEMAN; WUNSCH, J. MOL. BIOL., vol. 48, 1970, pages 443
NI ET AL., PLANT JOURNAL, vol. 7, 1995, pages 661
OOMS ET AL., PLASMID, vol. 7, 1982, pages 15
POTRYKUS, ANNU. REV. PLANT PHYSIOL. PLANT MOLEC. BIOL., vol. 42, 1991, pages 205
R.D. FINN ET AL., NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH, vol. 38, 2010, pages D211 - D222
R6-MER ET AL., BIOCHEM. BIOPHYS. RES. COMMUN., vol. 196, no. 3, 1993, pages 1414
REHM ET AL.: "Biotechnology", vol. 17, 1993, VCH, article "Applications of HPLC in Biochemistry in: Laboratory Techniques in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology", pages: 469 - 714
ROMANOS M.A. ET AL., YEAST, vol. 8, 1992, pages 423
RUPP W.D.: "E. coli and Salmonella", 1996, ASM, article "DNA repair mechanisms", pages: 2277 - 2294
SAMBROOK ET AL.: "Molecular Cloning", 1989, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY
SAMBROOK ET AL.: "Molecular Cloning", 1989, COLD SPRING HARBOUR
SAMBROOK ET AL.: "Molecular Cloning: A laboratory manual", 1989, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY PRESS
SAMBROOK J. ET AL.: "Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual", 1989, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY PRESS
SAMBROOK, J. ET AL.: "Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual", 1989, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY PRESS
SAMBROOK: "Molecular Cloning; A Laboratory Manual", 1989, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY PRESS
SCHMIDT ET AL., J. BIOL. CHEM., vol. 268, no. 36, 1993, pages 27447
SCHMIDT R.; WILLMITZER L., PLANT CELL REP., 1988, pages 7
SCHMIDT, R.; WILLMITZER, L., PLANT CELL REP., vol. 7, 1988, pages 583
SHAEIWITZ J.A.; HENRY J.D.: "Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry", vol. B3, 1988, VCH, article "Biochemical separations", pages: 1 - 27
SHAEIWITZ J.A.; HENRY J.D.: "Ulmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry", vol. B3, 1988, VCH, article "Biochemical separations", pages: 1 - 27
SMITH ET AL., MOL. GEN. GENETICS, vol. 224, 1990, pages 477
SMITH; WATERMAN, ADV. APPL. MATH., vol. 2, 1981, pages 482
STOCKHAUS ET AL., EMBO J., vol. 8, 1989, pages 2445
STREPP ET AL., PNAS, vol. 95, no. 8, 1998, pages 4368
THOMAS K.R; CAPECCHI M.R., CELL, vol. 51, 1987, pages 503
THOMPSON ET AL., BIOESSAYS, vol. 10, 1989, pages 108
THOMPSON ET AL., NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH, vol. 22, 1994, pages 4673
TIMOTHY L. BAILEY; CHARLES ELKAN: "Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology", 1994, AAAI PRESS, pages: 28 - 36
TOEPFER ET AL., METHODS ENZYMOL., vol. 217, 1993, pages 66
TOEPFER ET AL., NUCL. ACIDS. RES., vol. 15, 1987, pages 5890
TRENDS IN GENETICS, vol. 16, no. 6, 2000, pages 276
VAN DEN HONDEL, C.A.M.J.J. ET AL.: "More Gene Manipulations", 1991, ACADEMIC PRESS, article "Heterologous gene expression in filamentous fungi", pages: 396 - 428
VAN DEN HONDEL, C.A.M.J.J.; PUNT, P.J.: "Gene transfer systems and vector development for filamentous fungi", 1991
VAN DER KROLL ET AL., THE PLANT CELL, vol. 2, 1990, pages 291
W. R. PEARSON, ENZYMOLOGY, vol. 183, 1990, pages 63
W. R. PEARSON, METHODS IN ENZYMOLOGY, vol. 183, 1990, pages 63
W. R. PEARSON; D. J. LIPMAN, PNAS, vol. 85, 1988, pages 2444
WALKER ET AL., AM. J. BOT., vol. 65, 1978, pages 54
WALKER ET AL., AM. J. BOT., vol. 65, 1978, pages 654
WARD ET AL., PLANT. MOL. BIOL., vol. 22, 1993, pages 361
WARD ET AL., PLANT.MOL. BIOL, vol. 22, 1993, pages 361
WEIGEL ET AL., PLANT PHYSIOL., vol. 122, 2000, pages 1003
WHITE F.F.: "Transgenic Plants, Vol. 1, Engineering and Utilization", vol. 1, 1993, ACADEMIC PRESS, article "Vectors for Gene Transfer in Higher Plants", pages: 15 - 38
WHITE F.F.; JENES B. ET AL.: "Transgenic Plants, Vol. 1, Engineering and Utilization", vol. 1, 1993, ACADEMIC PRESS, article "Techniques for Gene Transfer", pages: 128 - 143
ZHAO ET AL., J. BIOL. CHEM., vol. 270, no. 11, 1995, pages 6081
ZHU, CURR OPIN PLANT BIOL, vol. 4, 2001, pages 401

Cited By (33)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN103748225A (en) * 2011-06-29 2014-04-23 不列颠哥伦比亚大学 Enhancing cell wall properties in plants or trees
JP2017042161A (en) * 2011-11-01 2017-03-02 フイルメニツヒ ソシエテ アノニムFirmenich Sa Cytochrome p450 and use thereof for enzymatic oxidation of terpenes
WO2013064411A1 (en) * 2011-11-01 2013-05-10 Firmenich Sa Cytochrome p450 and use thereof for the enzymatic oxidation of terpenes
CN103906834A (en) * 2011-11-01 2014-07-02 弗门尼舍有限公司 Cytochrome p450 and use thereof for the enzymatic oxidation of terpenes
JP2014532418A (en) * 2011-11-01 2014-12-08 フイルメニツヒ ソシエテ アノニムFirmenich Sa Cytochrome P450 and their use for enzymatic oxidation of terpenes
US10000773B2 (en) 2011-11-01 2018-06-19 Firmenich Sa Cytochrome P450 and use thereof for the enzymatic oxidation of terpenes
CN103906834B (en) * 2011-11-01 2016-11-16 弗门尼舍有限公司 Cytochrome P450 and the purposes in the enzymatic oxidation of terpene thereof
US11078492B2 (en) 2011-11-28 2021-08-03 Evogene Ltd. Isolated polynucleotides and polypeptides, and methods of using same for increasing nitrogen use efficiency, yield, growth rate, vigor, biomass, oil content, and/or abiotic stress tolerance
EP3003013A4 (en) * 2013-06-05 2016-11-09 Yeda Res & Dev Plant with altered content of steroidal glycoalkaloids
US11412700B2 (en) 2013-06-05 2022-08-16 Yeda Research And Development Co. Ltd. Plant with altered content of steroidal alkaloids
US10806119B2 (en) 2013-06-05 2020-10-20 Yeda Research And Development Co. Ltd. Plant with altered content of steroidal alkaloids
US11957102B2 (en) 2013-06-05 2024-04-16 Yeda Research And Development Co. Ltd. Plant with altered content of steroidal alkaloids
US10100322B2 (en) 2013-06-05 2018-10-16 Yeda Research And Development Co. Ltd. Plant with altered content of steroidal glycoalkaloids
CN103710316A (en) * 2013-12-13 2014-04-09 上海交通大学 Solanum chilense SCF complex CUL1 subunit protein sequence and nucleotide sequence
EP2907376A1 (en) 2014-02-14 2015-08-19 Biogemma Method for plant improvement
US20180184604A1 (en) * 2015-09-08 2018-07-05 Rijk Zwaan Zaadteelt En Zaadhandel B.V. Modified cullin1 gene
US10856482B2 (en) * 2015-09-08 2020-12-08 Rijk Zwaan Zaadteelt En Zaadhandel B.V. Modified Cullin1 gene
EP4008176A1 (en) 2015-12-21 2022-06-08 KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA Restorer plant
DE102015016445A1 (en) 2015-12-21 2017-06-22 Kws Saat Se Restorer plant
US11312967B2 (en) 2015-12-21 2022-04-26 KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA Restorer plants
DE102015017161A1 (en) 2015-12-21 2017-06-22 Kws Saat Se Restorer plant
US11840693B2 (en) 2015-12-21 2023-12-12 KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA Restorer plants
WO2017114897A1 (en) * 2015-12-29 2017-07-06 Repsol, S.A. Modified thiolases capable of producing branched compounds and uses thereof
US10526609B2 (en) 2016-08-01 2020-01-07 Aduro Biotech, Inc. Protein expression enhancer sequences and use thereof
WO2018026717A1 (en) * 2016-08-01 2018-02-08 Aduro Biotech, Inc. Protein expression enhancer sequences and use thereof
WO2018215915A1 (en) * 2017-05-22 2018-11-29 Benson Hill Biosystems, Inc. Increasing plant growth and yield by using an abc transporter sequence
US11535857B2 (en) 2017-05-22 2022-12-27 Benson Hill, Inc. Increasing plant growth and yield by using an ABC transporter sequence
WO2019130018A1 (en) * 2017-12-25 2019-07-04 Institute Of Genetics And Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy Of Sciences Methods of increasing yield and/or abiotic stress tolerance
US12041907B2 (en) 2018-09-06 2024-07-23 Yeda Research And Development Co. Ltd. Cellulose-synthase-like enzymes and uses thereof
CN112794886A (en) * 2021-02-01 2021-05-14 中国农业大学 Lactobacillus plantarum LuxS protein, application thereof and lactobacillus plantarum like recombinant strain
CN115820895A (en) * 2022-07-27 2023-03-21 湖南农业大学 Molecular marker closely linked with chlorophyll content of corn and application thereof
CN117247964A (en) * 2023-09-04 2023-12-19 南京农业大学 Application of E3 ubiquitin ligase gene GmPUB20 capable of regulating and controlling soybean mosaic virus resistance
CN117247964B (en) * 2023-09-04 2024-05-28 南京农业大学 Application of E3 ubiquitin ligase gene GmPUB20 capable of regulating and controlling soybean mosaic virus resistance

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP2501816A1 (en) 2012-09-26
EP2501816A4 (en) 2013-07-03
AU2010320547B2 (en) 2016-06-09
MX2012005719A (en) 2012-07-30
AU2010320547A1 (en) 2012-06-21
DE112010004469T5 (en) 2012-09-06
CN102770543A (en) 2012-11-07
US20120227134A1 (en) 2012-09-06
AR081092A1 (en) 2012-06-13
CA2780707A1 (en) 2011-05-26

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
AU2010320547B2 (en) Plants with increased yield
US8809059B2 (en) Plants with increased yield
US8664475B2 (en) Plants with increased yield
US20150152432A1 (en) Plants with increased yield and a method for making the same
EP2604622A2 (en) Plants with increased yield and/or increased tolerance to environmental stress (IY-BM)
EP2821493A1 (en) Plants with increased tolerance and/or resistance to environmental stress and increased biomass production
US20110195843A1 (en) Plants with Increased Yield (LT)
US20110154530A1 (en) Plants with Increased Yield by Increasing or Generating One or More Activities in a Plant or a Part Thereof
US20120117867A1 (en) Plants with Increased Yield
US20110010800A1 (en) Plants with increased yield

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 201080061584.3

Country of ref document: CN

121 Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application

Ref document number: 10831238

Country of ref document: EP

Kind code of ref document: A1

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 4087/CHENP/2012

Country of ref document: IN

ENP Entry into the national phase

Ref document number: 2780707

Country of ref document: CA

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 13510220

Country of ref document: US

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: MX/A/2012/005719

Country of ref document: MX

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 1120100044694

Country of ref document: DE

Ref document number: 112010004469

Country of ref document: DE

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 2010320547

Country of ref document: AU

REEP Request for entry into the european phase

Ref document number: 2010831238

Country of ref document: EP

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 2010831238

Country of ref document: EP

ENP Entry into the national phase

Ref document number: 2010320547

Country of ref document: AU

Date of ref document: 20101105

Kind code of ref document: A

REG Reference to national code

Ref country code: BR

Ref legal event code: B01A

Ref document number: 112012011641

Country of ref document: BR

ENP Entry into the national phase

Ref document number: 112012011641

Country of ref document: BR

Kind code of ref document: A2

Effective date: 20120516