The phenotypic predisposition of the parent in F1 hybrid is correlated with transcriptome preference of the positive general combining ability parent.

Background Sprague and Tatum (1942) introduced the concepts of general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) to evaluate the breeding parents and F1 hybrid performance, respectively. Since then, the GCA was widely used in cross breeding for elite parent selection. However, the molecular basis of GCA remains to unknown.