Methods and compositions for modulating shoot apical meristem size are provided. Methods are provided for modulating the expression of Fea4 sequence in a host plant or plant cell to modulate agronomic characteristics such as altered size and number of organs, including plant seeds.

The present invention relates to a method of enhancing the activity of a transcription factor in a plant comprising expressing in said plant a chimeric protein comprising a GIF moiety comprising a GIF domain or fragment thereof, and a DNA binding domain (DBD) moiety. The chimeric proteins comprise a GIF moiety comprising a GIF domain or fragment thereof, or a polypeptide with an amino acid sequence having at least 85%, preferably at least 90%, even more preferably at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of a GIF domain or fragment thereof; and a DBD moiety comprising the DBD or plant transcription factor whose activity enhancement is intended, or a binding protein which is capable of forming a tertiary complex with the DBD or transcription factor whose activity modification and/or enhancement is intended. The invention also relates to polynucleotides and polypeptides useful in the method of the invention.

This disclosure provides recombinant DNA constructs and transgenic plants having enhanced traits such as increased yield, increased nitrogen use efficiency and enhanced drought tolerance; propagules, progeny and field crops of such transgenic plants; and methods of making and using such transgenic plants. This disclosure also provides methods of producing seed from such transgenic plants, growing such seed and selecting progeny plants with enhanced traits. Also disclosed are transgenic plants with altered phenotypes which are useful for screening and selecting transgenic events for the desired enhanced trait.

The invention provides seeds and plants of Catharanthus hybrid ‘PAS1192826’ and the parent lines thereof. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds, plant parts, and tissue cultures of Catharanthus hybrid ‘PAS1192826’ and the parent lines thereof, and to methods for producing a Catharanthus plant produced by crossing such plants with themselves or with another Catharanthus plant, such as a plant of another genotype. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates plants, seeds, plant parts and tissue cultures of Catharanthus hybrid ‘PAS1192826’ and the parent lines thereof comprising introduced beneficial or desirable traits.

The invention relates to methods of producing a desired phenotype in a plant by manipulation of gene expression within the plant. The method relates to means which inhibit the level of PK220 gene expression or activity, wherein a desired phenotype such as increased water use efficiency relative to a wild type control plant. The invention also relates to nucleic acid sequences and constructs useful such methods and methods of generating and isolating plants having decreased PK220 expression or activity.

Plant cell fate and development is altered by treating cells with cellular reprogramming factors. Embryogenesis inducing embryogenesis factor genes and/or morphogenic developmental genes are used as cellular reprogramming factors, specifically comprising polypeptides or polynucleotides encoding gene products for generating doubled haploids or haploid plants from gametes. Maize microspores treated by contacting the isolated cells with an exogenous purified, recombinant embryogenesis inducing embryogenesis factor gene products and/or morphogenic developmental gene polypeptide results in embryogenesis. The gametes of a maize plant develop into embryoids when transformed with a genetic construct including regulatory elements and structural genes capable of acting in a cascading fashion to alter cellular fate of plant cells. Embryogenesis factor proteins and/or developmental morphogenic proteins expressed from a genetic construct are used for ex situ treatment methods and for in planta cellular reprogramming.

The present disclosure discloses an artificial combined rhizosphere nitrogen fixation system, including a recombinant nitrogen-fixing engineering bacterium that is transformed with genes for encoding a nitrogen fixation activator Neb and an ammonium transporter amtR, and a recombinant plant that is transformed with a gene for encoding an ammonium-affiliated protein Ham. The coupling of the functions of the above two is achieved through a seed-coated inoculation at a rhizosphere of a crop.

A SEC12-like protein gene CPU1 and application thereof in improving soybean phosphorus efficiency are disclosed. Through genome-wide association studies, a major genetic locus affecting soybean phosphorus efficiency is identified, and the candidate gene CPU1 is discovered and validated. There are natural variations in gene CPU1 in soybean population, including two alleles, phosphorus-inefficient allele CPU1-H1 and phosphorus-efficient allele CPU1-H2. Studies based on CPU1-transformation plants shows that inhibiting the expression of the allele CPU1-H2 significantly reduces soybean phosphorus efficiency, and ultimately reduces the biomass and yield of transgenic plants. The present disclosure provides new scientific insights into genetic bases underlying natural phenotypic variation in crops, and provides novel allele resources for molecular breeding of phosphorus efficiency.

This disclosure provides transgenic plants having enhanced traits such as increased yield, increased nitrogen use efficiency and enhanced drought tolerance; propagules, progeny and field crops of such transgenic plants; and methods of making and using such transgenic plants. This disclosure also provides methods of producing seed from such transgenic plants, growing such seed and selecting progeny plants with enhanced traits. Also disclosed are transgenic plants with altered phenotypes which are useful for screening and selecting transgenic events for the desired enhanced trait.

Embodiments of the present invention provide for a transgenic plan, methods of making and DNA constructs for use in the transgenic plant which transgenic plant is capable of modulating its photosynthetic antenna complex composition in response to increases or decreases in light intensity by modulation of the ratio of chlorophyll a to chlorophyll b such that there is an increase in the Chl a/b ratio at high light intensity and a decrease in the Chl a/b ratio at low light intensity versus wild-type plants grown in the same conditions.