To breed rice variety with larger panicle is one of objective in rice breeding program. It is necessary that to elucidate the genetic mechanisms of the larger panicle formation for high-yield rice breeding. In this paper, the research progresses on gene/QTL mapping and cloning for the grains number per panicle (GNP) were reviewed, and the QTL mapping for grain length, the primary branch number and the second branch number were also introduced. Three aspects including the mining of rice gene related to larger panicle, the methods for improve the precise of the gene mapping and the QTL’s application on rice breeding, were also discussed.