Sheath blight, caused by the Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn, is one of the most serious diseases of rice (Oryza sativa L.). The relationship between morphological traits and sheath blight resistance was investigated in 1999 and 2000 by using a segregant population consisting of 240 inbred recombination lines, derived from an elite combination of Zhenshan 97 X Minghui 63. Partial correlation analysis between phenotypic data (morphological characteristics and heading date (HD)) and sheath blight ratings (SBR) showed that only one trait, plant compactness, was significantly correlated with resistance to sheath blight in both 1999 and 2000, eight traits, such as plant height, heading date, and penultimate leaf angle, were significantly correlated with SBR in either of the two years, and the remaining 10 morphological traits were not consistently associated with SBR in the two years. A major quantitative trait locus (QTL) controlling plant compactness was found to be in the site on chromosome 9 adjacent to the region responsible for qSB9, a major QTLs conferring sheath blight resistance. One out of the three QTLs contributing to a penultimate leaf angle was mapped approximately on the same region as another sheath blight resistance QTL, qSB5, located on chromosome 5. Whereas, no QTLs underlying most other traits was detected on the chromosomal region correlated with sheath blight resistance QTL. The results in the present study suggested that the morphological traits were not the main factors responsible for the SBR separation among the recombinant inbred lines (RILs) population. Nevertheless, some morphological characteristics had some indirect influence on expression of sheath blight resistance genes through altering a microclimate on paddy field so as to influence the infection of the pathogen and development of the disease. An efficient approach in resistance breeding to sheath blight was recommended by pyramiding major QTLs for sheath blight resistance and selecting those morphological traits that favor resistance gene
