Patent ID: 7820879

Claim:
A method for increasing desiccation tolerance in a plant, the method comprising: (I) transforming a plant cell with an expression vector into which the DNA of any one of (a) to (c) is inserted: (a) a DNA encoding a protein comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3; (b) a DNA comprising the coding region of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; and (c) a DNA encoding a protein comprising an amino acid sequence having at least 95% or higher sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 3; (II) expressing the DNA of any one of (a) to (c) in the plant cell; (III) regenerating a transformed plant from the plant cell; and (IV) selecting for a transformed plant comprising said expression vector and having increased desiccation tolerance as determined by withholding water from the plant for thirty days, resuming watering after thirty days, and then selecting for the transformed plant that remains viable, thereby increasing desiccation tolerance in the transformed plant as compared to a plant of the same species lacking said expression vector.