In general, the invention features a method of producing a plant having increased disease resistance. The method includes the steps of: (a) providing a non-naturally occurring plant cell overexpressing a nucleic acid molecule encoding a calcium dependent protein kinase (CDPK) polypeptide; and (b) regenerating a plant from said plant cell, wherein the CDPK polypeptide is expressed in said plant, increasing the resistance of the plant to disease as compared to a naturally-occurring plant. In addition, the invention In related aspects, the invention further features non-naturally occurring plants (or plant cell, plant tissue, plant organ, or plant component) that expresses a nucleic acid molecule encoding either a CDPK2 or CDPK4 polypeptides or both, as well as seeds and cells of such plants.
