Regulatory sequences for expressing gene products in plant reproductive tissue

1. An expression cassette for expression of a nucleic acid molecule comprising:

a. a promoter, first exon, a first intron, and a second exon of a MADS gene obtained from Oryza sativa , wherein said promoter, first exon, intron and second exon are the 5′-regulatory sequence of said expression cassette; wherein said 5′-regulatory sequence has been engineered to include a translational initiation codon at the 3′ end of said 5′-regulatory sequence, and not to contain restriction endonuclease sites that hinder manipulation by recombinant DNA methods or additional translation initiation codons upstream of said translation initiation codon;

b. a 3′-regulatory sequence of a MADS gene obtained from Oryza sativa ; and

c. a nucleic acid molecule operably linked to said 5′-regulatory sequence and said 3′-regulatory sequence, wherein said nucleic acid molecule is heterologous to the 5′-regulatory sequence and to the 3′-regulatory sequence,

wherein the product of the expression of said nucleic acid molecule is targeted to the reproductive tissue of a plant.

2. The expression cassette of claim 1 , wherein the product of said nucleic acid molecule when expressed in a plant makes said plant abiotic stress tolerant.

3. The expression cassette of claim 1 , wherein expression in a plant results in an increase in the sink strength in said reproductive tissue of said plant compared to the sink strength in the reproductive tissue of a plant not comprising the expression cassette of claim 1 .

4. The expression cassette of claim 3 , wherein said nucleic acid is a nucleic acid encoding a trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase protein.

5. The expression cassette of claim 1 , wherein said nucleic acid molecule is depicted by SEQ ID NO. 531.

6. The expression cassette of claim 1 , wherein said nucleic acid molecule encodes the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO. 532.

7. The expression cassette of claim 1 , wherein said expression cassette is depicted by SEQ ID NO. 536, 537, 538 or 539.

8. A recombinant vector comprising the expression cassette of claim 1 .

9. A transgenic plant cell comprising the expression cassette of claim 1 .

10. A transgenic plant comprising the transgenic plant cell of claim 9 .

11. A transgenic plant according to claim 10 , wherein said plant is a monocot plant.

12. A transgenic plant according to claim 10 , wherein said plant is a maize plant.

13. A transgenic plant according to claim 10 , wherein said plant is a rice plant.

14. A transgenic seed from the plant of claim 10 .

15. A transgenic seed from the plant of claim 11 .

16. A transgenic seed from the plant of claim 12 .

17. A transgenic seed from the plant of claim 13 .

18. Plants containing the expression cassette according to claim 1 .

19. A method of targeting a nucleic acid molecule to the reproductive tissue of a plant comprising the steps of introducing into said plant an expression cassette comprising:

a. a promoter, a first exon, a first intron, and a second exon of a MADS gene obtained from Oryza sativa , wherein said promoter, first exon, intron, and second exon are the 5′-regulatory sequence of said expression cassette; wherein said 5′-regulatory sequence has been engineered to include a translational initiation codon at the 3′ end of said 5′-regulatory sequence, and not to contain restriction endonuclease sites that hinder manipulation by recombinant DNA methods or additional translation initiation codons upstream of said translation initiation codon;

b. a 3′-regulatory sequence of a MADS gene obtained from Oryza sativa ; and

c) said nucleic acid molecule operably linked to said 5′-regulatory sequence and said 3′-regulatory sequence, wherein said nucleic acid molecule is heterologous to the 5′-regulatory sequence and to the 3′-regulatory sequence,

wherein the product of the expression of said nucleic acid molecule is targeted to the reproductive tissue of a plant; and

expressing said cassette in said plant.