Compositions having pesticidal activity and methods for their use are provided. Compositions include isolated and recombinant polypeptide sequences having pesticidal activity, recombinant and synthetic nucleic acid molecules encoding the pesticidal polypeptides, DNA constructs comprising the nucleic acid molecules, vectors comprising the nucleic acid molecules, host cells comprising the vectors, and antibodies to the pesticidal polypeptides. Nucleotide sequences encoding the polypeptides provided herein can be used in DNA constructs or expression cassettes for transformation and expression in organisms of interest, including microorganisms and plants. The compositions and methods provided herein are useful for the production of organisms with enhanced pest resistance or tolerance. Transgenic plants and seeds comprising a nucleotide sequence that encodes a pesticidal protein of the invention are also provided. Such plants are resistant to insects and other pests. Methods are provided for producing the various polypeptides disclosed herein, and using those polypeptides for controlling or killing a pest.

Provided are isolated polypeptides which are at least 80% homologous to SEQ ID NOs: 496-794, 2898-3645, and 3647-4855, isolated polynucleotides which are at least 80% identical to SEQ ID NOs: 1-495 and 795-2897, nucleic acid constructs comprising same, transgenic cells expressing same, transgenic plants expressing same and method of using same for increasing fertilizer use efficiency, nitrogen use efficiency, yield, growth rate, biomass, vigor, oil content, photosynthetic capacity, seed yield, fiber yield, fiber quality, fiber length, and/or abiotic stress tolerance of a plant.

Methods and materials for modulating low-nitrogen tolerance levels in plants are disclosed. For example, nucleic acids encoding low nitrogen tolerance-modulating polypeptides are disclosed as well as methods for using such nucleic acids to transform plant cells. Also disclosed are plants having increased low-nitrogen tolerance levels and plant products produced from plants having increased low-nitrogen tolerance levels.

The present disclosure provides the identification of promoters that are preferentially active in tobacco axillary buds. Also provided are tobacco plants comprising reduced or no sucker growth. Also provided are methods and compositions for producing tobacco plants comprising reduced or no sucker growth.

Methods comprising DNA constructs and polynucleotides of functional transcription factors for improving photosynthetic capacity, biomass and/or grain yield and stress tolerance in various crop and model plants, dicots and monocots with the C.sub.3 or C.sub.4 photosynthetic pathways are described herein.

The disclosure isolates and identifies a peptide PEP1 that regulates plant root development and a gene OsPEP1 encoding the same. Exogenous application of PEP1 could inhibit the plant root development. A recombinant expression vector containing the gene or part of the DNA of the gene is obtained, and a transgenic plant with altered root growth and development is obtained by transforming with the recombinant expression vector. Therefore, the peptide can be used as a plant growth regulator, and the gene encoding the same and precursor protein thereof can be used as a potential molecular breeding target for crop improvement, for example, improving crop yield by regulating the growth and development of crop roots.

A composition including: (i) a ds RNA molecule of at least 18 contiguous nucleotides that are essentially identical or essentially complementary to a plant gene or a transcript of said plant gene; and (ii) a transfer agent that conditions a surface of a plant to permeation by the ds RNA molecule into cells of the plant; wherein permeation of the ds RNA molecule into cells of the plant causes a transient reduction in the expression of the gene and wherein the transient reduction in the expression of the gene causes a change in a yield-associated trait of the plant.

The invention relates to novel soybean plants, seeds and compositions, as well as improvements to plant breeding and methods for creating modifications in plant genomes.

Methods and compositions for modulating shoot apical meristem size are provided. Methods are provided for modulating the expression of fea3 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 genetically modified woody plants comprising a heterologous nucleic acid construct comprising a promoter sequence operably linked to a coding sequence encoding a gibberellin 20-oxidase gene product, wherein the promoter is preferentially or specifically expressed in meristematic tissue of said plant. The invention further relates to methods for producing such plants and to certain nucleic acid molecules useful as promoters.