The terminator, an apparatus for simultaneous homogenization of 96 small seeds individually.

An apparatus was developed to homogenize 96 individual seeds of tomato, pepper, cabbages, and other seeds of similar size in a 96-well tissue culture plate in 45 s. The apparatus, named the terminator, consists of two parts: a base plate that can hold the 96-well tissue culture plate, and a vibrating part that is attached to a variable transformer. The seeds are homogenized by the vibrating action of 96 small homogenizers that are attached to the vibrating part and that fit perfectly into the wells of the tissue culture plate. The seed homogenates made in this way can be used for electrophoretic analysis of genetic variations of seed proteins.