Many rice spotted-leaf (spl) mutants are ideal sources for understanding the mechanisms involved in blast resistance,bactarial blight resistance and programmed cell death in plants.The genetic controls of 50 spotted-leaf mutants in rice have been characterized and a few spotted-leaf genes have been isolated as well.This article reviews the origin,genetic modes,isolation and characterization of spotted-leaf genes responsible for their phenotypes,and their resistance responses to main rice diseases.