DIRIGENT GENE EG261 AND ITS ORTHOLOGS AND PARALOGS AND THEIR USES FOR PATHOGEN RESISTANCE IN PLANTS

1 - 38 . (canceled)

39 . A transgenic tomato plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture comprising a construct comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding an EG261 polypeptide having at least 95% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 15, wherein said transgenic tomato plant, or a transgenic tomato plant produced from said transgenic plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture, expresses said EG261 polypeptide, and has enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to at least one root disease to control tomato plants, and wherein root disease is a root rot disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium solani and Sclerotiumrolfsii.

40 . The transgenic tomato plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 39 , wherein the construct further comprises a gene termination sequence.

41 . The transgenic tomato plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 40 , wherein the gene termination sequence is a nopaline synthase (NOS) terminator.

42 . The transgenic tomato plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 39 , wherein the construct is an overexpression construct.

43 . The transgenic tomato plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 42 , wherein the overexpression construct comprises a gene termination sequence.

44 . A method for producing a transgenic tomato plant having enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to tat least one root disease, said method comprising:

(i) transforming a tomato plant cell with a construct comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding an EG261 polypeptide having at least 95% identity to SEQ ID NO: 15; and

(ii) cultivating the transgenic tomato cell under conditions conducive to regeneration and mature plant growth;

wherein the transgenic tomato plant regenerated from said transgenic plant cell expresses said EG261 polypeptide, and has enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to at least one root disease compared to control tomato plants, and wherein root disease is a root rot disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium solani and Sclerotiumrolfsii.

45 . The method of claim 44 , wherein the construct is an overexpression construct.

46 . A method of producing hybrid tomato seed, said method comprising crossing the transgenic tomato plant of claim 39 with another tomato plant, and harvesting a resultant seed, wherein the resultant seed comprises the nucleic acid sequence encoding the EG261 polypeptide.

47 . A hybrid tomato plant, or part thereof, produced by growing the seed of claim 46 .

48 . A progeny plant of the tomato plant produced by the seed produced by the method of claim 46 , wherein the progeny tomato plant has enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to the at least one root disease compared to an control tomato plant, wherein the progeny plant comprises the nucleic acid encoding the EG261 polypeptide.

49 . A method of breeding tomato plants to produce plants with enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to at least one root disease, said method comprising:

(i) making a cross between a first transgenic tomato plant of claim 39 with a second plant to produce an F1 plant;

(ii) backcrossing the F1 plant to the second plant; and

(iii) repeating the backcrossing step one or more times to generate a near isogenic or isogenic line,

wherein the construct comprising the nucleic acid sequence encoding the EG261 polypeptide is integrated into the genome of the second plant and the near isogenic or isogenic line derived from the second plant with the nucleic acid sequence encoding the EG261 polypeptide has enhanced pathogen tolerance and/or resistance to at least one root disease compared to that of the second plant without said nucleic acid sequence, and wherein root disease is a root rot disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium solani and Sclerotiumrolfsii.

50 . The method of claim 49 , wherein the second plant is Glycine max.

51 . The transgenic tomato plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 39 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 97% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 15.

52 . The transgenic tomato plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 39 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 98% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 15.

53 . The transgenic tomato plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 39 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 99% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 15.

54 . The transgenic tomato plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 39 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having 100% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 15.

55 . The method for producing a transgenic tomato plant having enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to the at least one root disease of claim 44 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 97% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 15.

56 . The method for producing a transgenic tomato plant having enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to the at least one root disease of claim 44 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 98% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 15.

57 . The method for producing a transgenic tomato plant having enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to the at least one root disease of claim 44 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 99% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 15.

58 . The method for producing a transgenic tomato plant having enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to the at least one root disease of claim 44 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having 100% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 15.