The present invention is directed to imparting stress resistance to plants. This can be achieved by applying a hypersensitive response elicitor in a non-infectious form to plants or plant seeds under conditions effective to impart stress resistance to plants or plants grown from the plant seeds. Alternatively, transgenic plants or plant seeds transformed with a DNA molecule encoding the elicitor can be provided and the transgenic plants or plants resulting from the transgenic plant seeds are grown under conditions effective to impart stress resistance to plants or plants grown from the plant seeds.
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