Grain size is a major determinant of grain weight and a trait having important impact on grain quality in rice. The objective of this study is to detect QTLs for grain size in rice and identify important QTLs that have not been well characterized before. The QTL mapping was first performed using three recombinant inbred line populations derived from indica rice crosses Teqing/IRBB lines, Zhenshan 97/Milyang 46, Xieqingzao/Milyang 46. Fourteen QTLs for grain length and 10 QTLs for grain width were detected, including seven shared by two populations and 17 found in one population. Three of the seven common QTLs were found to coincide in position with those that have been cloned and the four others remained to be clarified. One of them, qGS10 located in the interval RM6100–RM228 on the long arm of chromosome 10, was validated using F2:3 populations and near isogenic lines derived from residual heterozygotes for the interval RM6100–RM228. The QTL was found to have a considerable effect on grain size and grain weight, and a small effect on grain number. This region was also previously detected for quality traits in rice in a number of studies, providing a good candidate for functional analysis and breeding utilization.

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for percentage of chalky grain, degree of chalkiness, and endosperm transparency were detected using 3 recombinant inbred line populations derived from crosses between parental lines of commercial three-line hybrids of indica rice. Two of the populations showed great variations on heading date, and the other had a short range of heading date variation. A total of 40 QTLs were detected and fell into 15 regions of 10 chromosomes, of which 5 regions were detected for 1 or more same traits over different populations, 2 were detected for different traits in different populations, 3 were detected for 2 or all the 3 traits in a single population, and 5 were detected for a single trait in a single population. Most of these QTLs have been reported previously, but a region located on the long arm of chromosome 10 showing significant effects in all the 3 populations has not been reported before. It was shown that a number of gene cloned, including the Wx and Alk for the physiochemical property of rice grain, and GW2, GS3 and GW5 for grain weight and grain size, could have played important roles for the genetic control of grain chalkiness in rice, but there are many more QTLs exerting stable effects for rice chalkiness over different genetic backgrounds. It is worth paying more attentions to these regions which harbor QTL such as the qPCG5.2/qDC5.2/qET5.2 and qPCG10/qDC10/qET10 detected in our study. Our results also showed that the use of segregating populations having high-uniform heading date could greatly increase the efficiency of the identification of QTL responsible for traits that are subjected to great environmental influence.