In previous investigations of male fertility in different wild isolates of C. elegans, it was found that males from the Stanford race CB4855 are substantially more fertile than males from the standard Bristol race N2 (Hodgkin and Doniach (1997), Genetics 146: 149-164). More recently, several investigators have observed that the Hawaiian race CB4856 also exhibits high male fertility, so that male plates can be maintained indefinitely, simply by chunking rather than by setting up new crosses periodically (Hammarlund & Jorgensen (2001),
wbg17.1p38).