Protein for Use in Modifying Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Yeast

Abstract

A method is presented for selecting and isolating nucleic acids capable of conferring tolerance or resistance to environmental stress conditions in plants or yeast. Furthermore, nucleic acids, the proteins they encode and their use for the production of plants or yeast with enhanced environmental stress resistance is disclosed.

1 . An isolated protein comprising the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 2. 
     
     
         2 . An isolated protein consisting of the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 2. 
     
     
         3 . An isolated variant of a protein comprising the amino acid shown in SEQ ID NO: 2, wherein the variant comprises an amino acid sequence that is at least 95% identical to SEQ ID NO: 2, said variant being capable of increasing stress tolerance of a yeast cell. 
     
     
         4 . The isolated variant protein of  claim 3  wherein the variant comprises an amino acid sequence that is at least 96% identical to SEQ ID NO: 2. 
     
     
         5 . The isolated variant protein of  claim 3  wherein the variant comprises an amino acid sequence that is at least 97% identical to SEQ ID NO: 2. 
     
     
         6 . The isolated variant protein of  claim 3  wherein the variant comprises an amino acid sequence that is at least 98% identical to SEQ ID NO: 2. 
     
     
         7 . The isolated variant protein of  claim 3  wherein the variant comprises an amino acid sequence that is at least 99% identical to SEQ ID NO: 2. 
     
     
         8 . An isolated protein comprising a CRYO5 RING finger domain, a CRYO5 serine rich domain, and the CRYO5 signature sequence of SEQ ID NO: 11, in which no more than 6 amino acid substitutions in the signature sequence may occur, said protein being capable of increasing stress tolerance of a yeast cell. 
     
     
         9 . A method of increasing abiotic stress tolerance in yeast comprising transforming yeast with a nucleic acid sequence encoding a protein of  claim 1 , and expressing the protein of  claim 1  in said yeast such that said yeast demonstrate increased abiotic stress tolerance as compared with control yeast. 
     
     
         10 . A method of increasing abiotic stress tolerance in yeast comprising transforming yeast with a nucleic acid sequence encoding a protein of  claim 8 , and expressing the protein of  claim 8  in said yeast such that said yeast demonstrate increased abiotic stress tolerance as compared with control yeast. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9  wherein said abiotic stress is temperature stress. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10  wherein said abiotic stress is temperature stress. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11  wherein said abiotic stress is cold temperature stress. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12  wherein said abiotic stress is cold temperature stress. 
     
     
         15 . A method for increasing abiotic stress tolerance of a plant, a plant part, a plant cell or a yeast, comprising the steps of introducing a genetic modification in said plant, plant part, plant cell or yeast and selecting for modulated expression in said plant, plant part, plant cell or yeast of a nucleic acid encoding a protein, and/or modulated activity in a plant, a plant cell or a yeast or yeast of a protein, which protein (a) comprises the sequence as given in SEQ ID NO: 2; (b) comprises a sequence having at least 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99% sequence identity to the full length sequence as given in SEQ ID NO: 2; (c) comprises a sequence according to any of (a) or (b), wherein conserved naturally or non-naturally altered amino acid substitutions are present; (d) comprises a functional fragment of any of (a) to (c), said abiotic stress being at least one of temperature stress, osmotic stress, drought stress salt stress or oxidative stress. 
     
     
         16 . A method for increasing abiotic stress tolerance of a plant, a plant part, a plant cell or a yeast, comprising the steps of introducing a genetic modification in said plant, plant part, plant cell or yeast and selecting for modulated expression in said plant, plant part, plant cell or yeast of a nucleic acid encoding a protein, and/or modulated activity in a plant, a plant cell or a yeast or yeast of a protein, which protein is a CRYO5 like plant proteins comprising a RING finger domain, a serine rich domain, and an acid domain which comprises the signature of SEQ ID NO: 11, in which no more than 6 substitutions may occur; said abiotic stress being at least one of temperature stress, osmotic stress, drought stress salt stress or oxidative stress. 
     
     
         17 . An isolated nucleic acid encoding a protein according to  claim 1 , or the complement thereof. 
     
     
         18 . An isolated nucleic acid encoding a protein according to  claim 2 , or the complement thereof. 
     
     
         19 . An isolated nucleic acid encoding a protein according to  claim 3 , or the complement thereof. 
     
     
         20 . An isolated nucleic acid encoding a protein according to  claim 4 , or the complement thereof. 
     
     
         21 . An isolated nucleic acid encoding a protein according to  claim 5 , or the complement thereof. 
     
     
         22 . An isolated nucleic acid encoding a protein according to  claim 6 , or the complement thereof. 
     
     
         23 . An isolated nucleic acid encoding a protein according to  claim 7 , or the complement thereof. 
     
     
         24 . An isolated nucleic acid encoding a protein according to  claim 8 , or the complement thereof.