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.