Plant cells and plants modified to increase resistance to necrotrophs or drought and methods of selecting and using the same

1. A plant cell transformed with a first expression cassette which comprises a nucleic acid molecule operably linked to a heterologous promoter and encoding at least one first polynucleotide that targets at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase gene in said plant cell to reduce or eliminate expression of at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein encoded by said at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase gene, wherein said at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein has at least 97% amino acid sequence identity to the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, and wherein overexpression of said first polynucleotide in said plant cell increases resistance to a necrotroph and increases drought tolerance as compared to a control plant cell of the same species lacking said first expression cassette, and wherein the plant cell is selected from the group consisting of a soybean plant cell, a common bean plant cell and a leguminous plant cell.

2. The transformed plant cell of claim 1 , wherein expression of at least two endogenous respiratory burst oxidase proteins is reduced or eliminated.

3. The transformed plant cell of claim 1 , wherein expression of at least four endogenous respiratory burst oxidase proteins is reduced or eliminated.

4. The transformed plant cell of claim 1 , wherein said at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein has at least 98% amino acid sequence identity to the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1.

5. The transformed plant cell of claim 1 , wherein said at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein has at least 99% amino acid sequence identity to the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1.

6. The transformed plant cell of claim 1 , wherein said at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein has the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1.

7. The transformed plant cell of claim 1 , wherein expression of said at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein is reduced by at least 30% as compared to said control plant cell.

8. The transformed plant cell of claim 1 , wherein the necrotroph is Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.

9. The transformed plant cell of claim 1 , wherein the transformed plant cell is further transformed with a second expression cassette which comprises a second polynucleotide that targets at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase gene to reduce or eliminate expression of an additional endogenous respiratory burst oxidase gene encoding an endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein having at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to a respiratory burst oxidase protein selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 2, SEQ ID NO: 3, and SEQ ID NO: 4.

10. The transformed plant cell of claim 9 , wherein the expression of four endogenous Respiratory Burst Oxidase proteins having at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 2, SEQ ID NO: 3 and SEQ ID NO: 4, is reduced or eliminated.

11. A transgenic plant comprising the transformed plant cell of claim 1 .

12. A transgenic plant seed obtained from the transgenic plant of claim 11 , wherein said transgenic plant seed comprises said first expression cassette.

13. The transgenic plant cell of claim 1 , wherein said first polynucleotide is selected from the group consisting of miRNA, siRNA and antisense RNA.

14. A method of generating a transgenic plant comprising: (i) transforming plant cells with a first expression cassette which comprises a nucleic acid molecule operably linked to a heterologous promoter and encoding at least one first polynucleotide that targets at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase gene in said transgenic plant cells to reduce or eliminate expression of at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein encoded by said at least one respiratory burst oxidase gene, wherein said at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein has at least 97% amino acid sequence identity to the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, and wherein said plant cells are selected from the group consisting of soybean plant cells, common bean plant cells and leguminous plant cells; (ii) obtaining transgenic plants from said transformed plant cells of step (i); and (iii) selecting a transgenic plant from the transgenic plants of step (ii) that expresses said first polynucleotide in said selected transgenic plant and exhibits increased resistance to a necrotroph and increased drought tolerance as compared to a control plant of the same plant species lacking said first expression cassette and grown under identical growth conditions.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising obtaining transgenic plant seeds from the selected transgenic plant of step (iii).

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the transformed plant cells are further transformed with a second expression cassette which comprises a second polynucleotide that targets at least one endogenous respiratory burst oxidase gene to reduce or eliminate expression of an additional endogenous respiratory burst oxidase gene encoding an endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein having at least 95% amino acid sequence identity to an endogenous respiratory burst oxidase protein selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 2, SEQ ID NO: 3, and SEQ ID NO: 4.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein said first polynucleotide is selected from the group consisting of miRNA, siRNA, and antisense RNA.