Plant transformed with hardy (HRD) gene having enhanced drought tolerance

A method for the generation of a transgenic plant having at least one phenotype selected from the group consisting of enhanced disease resistance and enhanced root structure, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) introducing into cells of plants a chimeric gene comprising a transgenic regulatory sequence active in plant cells operably linked to a nucleic acid sequence encoding a protein comprising SEQ ID NO:
• 3;
• (b) growing the plant for a period of time and screening the plants for the at least one phenotype to recover a plant containing the chimeric gene as a stable genomic insert, said screening comprising (i) growing the plants in the presence of a pathogen or (ii) examining the root structure of the plants to ascertain the presence of more longitudinal secondary and tertiary roots than in control plants;
• and, optionally,
• (c) obtaining seed from the recovered plant that contain the chimeric gene as a stable genomic insert and that have the at least one phenotype.