A transgenic plant transformed by a Protein Phosphatase Stress-Related Polypeptide (PPSRP) coding nucleic acid, wherein expression or repression of the nucleic acid sequence in the plant results in increased tolerance to environmental stress as compared to a wild type variety of the plant. Also provided are agricultural products, including seeds, produced by the transgenic plants. Also provided are isolated PPSRPs, and isolated nucleic acid coding PPSRPs, and vectors and host cells containing the latter.