NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCES AND POLYPEPTIDES ENCODED THEREBY USEFUL FOR MODIFYING PLANT CHARACTERISTICS AND PHENOTYPES

1 . An isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising:

a) a nucleic acid having a nucleotide sequence which encodes an amino acid sequence exhibiting at least 85% sequence identity to an amino acid sequence in the Sequence Listing or in the ortholog alignments of FIG. 1 ;

b) a nucleic acid which is a complement of a nucleotide sequence according to paragraph (a);

c) a nucleic acid which is the reverse of the nucleotide sequence according to subparagraph (a), such that the reverse nucleotide sequence has a sequence order which is the reverse of the sequence order of the nucleotide sequence according to subparagraph (a); or

d) a nucleic acid capable of hybridizing to a nucleic acid according to any one of paragraphs (a)-(c), under conditions that permit formation of a nucleic acid duplex at a temperature from about 40° C. and 48° C. below the melting temperature of the nucleic acid duplex.

2 . The isolated nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 , which has the nucleotide sequence according to any polynucleotide sequence in the Sequence Listing.

3 . The isolated nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 , wherein said amino acid sequence comprises any polypeptide sequence in the Sequence Listing or in the ortholog alignments of FIG. 1 .

4 . A vector construct comprising:

a) a first nucleic acid having a regulatory sequence capable of causing transcription and/or translation in a plant; and

b) a second nucleic acid having the sequence of the isolated nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 ;

wherein said first and second nucleic acids are operably linked and

wherein said second nucleic acid is heterologous to any element in said vector construct.

5 . The vector construct according to claim 4 , wherein said first nucleic acid is native to said second nucleic acid.

6 . The vector construct according to claim 4 , wherein said first nucleic acid is heterologous to said second nucleic acid.

7 . A host cell comprising an isolated nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 wherein said nucleic acid molecule is flanked by exogenous sequence.

8 . A host cell comprising a vector construct according to claim 4 .

9 . An isolated polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence exhibiting at least 85% sequence identity of an amino acid sequence of the Sequence Listing or in the ortholog alignments of FIG. 1 .

10 . A method of introducing an isolated nucleic acid into a host cell comprising:

a) providing an isolated nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 ; and

b) contacting said isolated nucleic with said host cell under conditions that permit insertion of said nucleic acid into said host cell.

11 . A method of transforming a host cell which comprises contacting a host cell with a vector construct according to claim 4 .

12 . A method for detecting a nucleic acid in a sample which comprises:

a) providing an isolated nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 ;

b) contacting said isolated nucleic acid molecule with a sample under conditions which permit a comparison of the sequence of said isolated nucleic acid molecule with the sequence of DNA in said sample; and

c) analyzing the result of said comparison.

13 . A host cell or organism which comprises a nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 which is exogenous or heterologous to said plant or plant cell.

14 . A host cell or organism according to claim 13 , which is a plant, plant cell, plant material or seed of a plant.

15 . A plant which has been regenerated from a plant cell or seed according to claim 14 .

16 . A plant, plant cell, plant material or seed of a plant which comprises a nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 , wherein said plant has improved characteristics as compared to a wild-type plant cultivated under the same conditions.

17 . The plant, plant cell, plant material or seed of a plant according to claim 16 , wherein the improved characteristic is the one associated with and described in the miscellaneous feature section of the sequence listing for the particular sequence.

18 . A method for improving plant characteristics in a plant comprising transforming a plant with a nucleic acid sequence according to claim 1 .

19 . A transgenic plant having a gene construct comprising a nucleic acid according to claim 1 encoding a component operably linked to a plant promoter so that the component is ectopically overexpressed in the transgenic plant, and the transgenic plant exhibits:

i) faster rate of growth,

ii) greater fresh or dry weight at maturation,

iii) greater fruit or seed yield,

iv) higher tolerance to pH,

v) higher tolerance to low phosphate concentration, or

vi) higher tolerance to low nitrogen concentration

than a progenitor plant which does not contain the polynucleotide construct, when the transgenic plant and the progenitor plant are cultivated under identical environmental conditions, wherein the component is any one of the polypeptides set forth in the Sequence Listing or in the ortholog alignment of FIG. 1 .