Nucleotide sequences and corresponding polypeptides conferring modulated growth rate and biomass in plants grown in saline conditions

A method of increasing tolerance to salinity in a plant, said method comprising providing a plurality of transgenic plants comprising a promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid, wherein the promoter and the nucleic acid are heterologous to each other and whereby the nucleic acid is expressed, and said nucleic acid comprising a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of:

• (a) a nucleotide sequence that encodes a protein comprising an amino acid sequence having at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 80;
• (b) a nucleotide sequence that encodes a protein that comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 80;
• (c) a nucleotide sequence comprising the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 79 that encodes a protein having 100% amino acid sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 80;
• and
• (d) a nucleotide sequence comprising a nucleotide sequence having at least 95% nucleotide sequence identity to the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 79 and encoding a protein having the functional activity of the protein as set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 80;
• and
• selecting from the plurality of said transgenic plants a transgenic plant that overexpresses said protein encoded by the nucleotide sequence of (a), (b), (c) or (d) and exhibits increased tolerance to salinity as compared to a control plant of the same species lacking said nucleic acid and grown under identical growth conditions.