Plants having altered agronomic characteristics under nitrogen limiting conditions and related constructs and methods involving genes encoding LNT1 polypeptides and homologs thereof

A method of evaluating nitrogen stress tolerance in a plant, comprising:

• (a) introducing into a regenerable plant cell a recombinant DNA construct comprising a polynucleotide operably linked to at least one regulatory sequence, wherein the polynucleotide encodes a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 90% sequence identity, based on the Clustal V method of alignment, when compared to SEQ ID NO:32;
• (b) regenerating a transgenic plant from the regenerable plant cell after step (a), wherein the transgenic plant comprises in its genome the recombinant DNA construct;
• (c) obtaining a progeny plant derived from the transgenic plant, wherein the progeny plant comprises in its genome the recombinant DNA construct;
• and
• (d) evaluating the progeny plant for nitrogen stress tolerance compared to a control plant not comprising the recombinant DNA construct.