US Patent 7832143 High throughput methods for sampling seeds

A high-throughput method is provided for analyzing individual seeds in a population of seeds. The method generally includes removing a tissue sample from at least one or more seeds in the population of seeds while preserving germination viability of the at least one or more seeds from which the tissue sample is taken, depositing the tissue sample into an individual compartment of a sample tray, contacting the tissue sample with an extraction buffer to remove DNA from the sample, and analyzing the extracted DNA for the presence or absence of a transgene of interest. The extraction buffer may be present in the individual compartment of the sample tray before the tissue sample is deposited into the individual compartment.