Abstract: The presently-disclosed subject matter provides isolated nucleic acid and amino acid sequences encoding mushroom desaturase polypeptides that are active with both palmitic and stearic acid, as well as vectors and transgenic plant cells comprising nucleic acids of the presently-disclosed subject matter. The presently-disclosed subject matter further provides methods of producing monounsaturated fatty acids, such as palmitoleic acid (16:1), and monounsaturated fatty acids prepared by the methods disclosed herein.

Abstract: A method for generating a transgenic soybean plant comprising in its genome a heterologous nucleic acid sequence of interest, comprises introducing into a soybean somatic embryo a polynucleotide encoding a functional dihydrodipicolinate synthase (DHPS) polypeptide, and a polynucleotide encoding a heterologous polypeptide of interest, operably linked to expression control sequences, wherein DHPS expressed from the introduced DHPS-encoding polynucleotide is effective to render the embryo resistant to S-2-aminoethylcysteine (2-AEC), and contacting the embryo with 2-AEC, under conditions effective for an embryo which expresses the DHPS to grow selectably and mature into a soybean plant that expresses a desired trait, and preferably includes no antibiotic resistance marker sequence.