Patent ID: 8716553

Claim:
A method for increasing plant tolerance to an abiotic stress, relative to a control plant, comprising: (a) transforming plant cells with a transformation vector comprising an isolated polynucleotide encoding a transcriptional activator protein having at least 98% amino acid sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, wherein said polynucleotide is operably linked to a heterologous promoter which drives expression of said transcriptional activator protein; (b) obtaining transformed plants from the transformed plant cells of step (a), wherein said transformed plants express the transcriptional activator protein encoded by said isolated polynucleotide; and (c) selecting a transformed plant from the step (b) having increased tolerance to said abiotic stress, relative to a control plant of the same plant species, and wherein said abiotic stress is low temperature or drought.