Patent ID: 7799566

Claim:
A method for increasing transformation frequency of a maize cell comprising introducing into a maize cell an isolated cyclin D (CycD) polynucleotide operably linked to a promoter; wherein said CycD polynucleotide encodes a polypeptide comprising at least 95% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 14 and wherein the % identity is determined by GCG/bestfit program using a gap creation penalty of 50 and a gap extension penalty of 3; wherein when a maize CycD polypeptide is expressed from said CycD polynucleotide, said maize cell has increased transformation efficiency when compared to a maize cell without an introduced isolated CycD polynucleotide; and wherein said maize CycD polypeptide binds to cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4).