Drought tolerant transgenic plants and method of making same

A method of increasing drought tolerance of a plant as compared to a control plant, the method comprising:

• (a) providing a recombinant DNA construct comprising a polynucleotide sequence that is expressed to obtain a drought tolerant plant, wherein the polynucleotide sequence has a sequence similarity of E value <1e-90 to PYL13, wherein PYL13 has an amino acid sequence consisting of SEQ ID NO:1 and comprising CL1, CL2 and CL4 conserved regions, wherein the polynucleotide sequence expresses a mutant polypeptide having an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of:
• SEQ ID NO:149 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K59Q, L87F and N151T,
• SEQ ID NO:150 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K86Q, L114F and N181T,
• SEQ ID NO:151 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K64Q, L91F and N157T,
• SEQ ID NO:152 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K70Q, L111F and N180T,
• SEQ ID NO:153 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K81Q, L109F and N170T,
• SEQ ID NO:154 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K87Q, L115F and N176T,
• SEQ ID NO:155 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K90Q, L118F and N184T,
• SEQ ID NO:156 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K65Q, L91F and N155T,
• SEQ ID NO:157 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K61Q, L87F and N151T,
• SEQ ID NO:158 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K63Q, L89F and N153T,
• SEQ ID NO:159 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K56Q, L83F and N147T,
• SEQ ID NO:160 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K39Q, L66F and N129T, and
• SEQ ID NO:161 having at least one homologous point mutation selected from the group consisting of K39Q, L66F and N128T;
• and
• (b) introducing the recombinant DNA construct into a plant to produce a transgenic plant, wherein the transgenic plant exhibits increased drought tolerance.