Mate family genes and uses for plant improvement

A method for manufacturing transgenic seed that can be used to produce a crop of transgenic plants with an enhanced trait resulting from expression of stably-integrated, recombinant DNA in a plant cell nucleus comprising the recombinant DNA comprising a promoter that is functional in a plant cell and that is operably linked to a DNA segment encoding a protein comprising an amino acid sequence having at least 90% amino acid sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:

• 557 and having the activity of a protein comprising SEQ ID NO:557, said method for manufacturing said transgenic seed comprising:
• (a) screening a population of plants for said enhanced trait and said recombinant DNA, wherein individual plants in said population can exhibit said trait at a level less than, essentially the same as or greater than the level that said trait is exhibited in control plants which do not express the recombinant DNA, wherein said enhanced trait is enhanced cold tolerance, enhanced resistance to salt exposure, or increased yield,
• (b) selecting from said population one or more plants that exhibit said trait at a level greater than the level that said trait is exhibited in control plants,
• (c) verifying that said recombinant DNA is stably integrated in said selected plants,
• (d) analyzing tissue of said selected plant to determine the production a protein having the function of a protein comprising SEQ ID NO:557;
• and
• (e) collecting seed from said selected plant.