Patent ID: 7939711

Claim:
A method to protect plants or plant cells from salinity, osmotic, or dehydration stress which method comprises a) identifying plants or plant cells that are likely to be subjected to salinity, osmotic, or dehydration stress; b) modifying said plants or plant cells to produce a protein comprising a DnaJ-type J-domain; wherein said modifying comprises transfecting said plants or plant cells with a nucleic acid molecule that comprises control sequences that effect high expression levels in said plants or plant cells operably linked to a nucleotide sequence that encodes a protein that comprises a DnaJ-type J-domain which encoding nucleotide sequence is heterologous to said control sequences, or wherein said protein is heterologous to the plant or plant cells; wherein the protein further comprises, downstream from said J-domain, a DnaJ-type glycine/phenylalanine rich domain, and downstream from said glycine/phenylalanine rich domain a (CXXCXGXG) 4 (SEQ ID NO:1) zinc finger domain and wherein said protein is a Type I DnaJ protein; and c) subjecting said modified plants or plant cells to salinity, osmotic, or dehydration stress.