597561 PLANTS WITH MODIFIED LIGNIN CONTENT AND METHODS FOR PRODUCTION THEREOF Provided is a plant comprising a down-regulated NST transcription factor wherein the plant exhibits reduced lignin content, wherein the plant comprises a mutated NST coding sequence or a DNA molecule capable of expressing a nucleic acid sequence complementary to all or a portion of a NST coding sequence, and wherein the NST coding sequence comprises at least 80% sequence identity to a specified DNA sequence. Further provided are products derived using the transformed plants methods of increasing drought tolerance of plants using the sequences.
