Ten indica rice and eight japonica rice mutants with lesion resembling disease (lrd27-44) were obtained by gamma-ray mutagenesis of the whole genomes. These mutants exhibited diverse lesion mimic phenotypes under different growth environments, could be accordingly classified two types, sensitive and insensitive to environments. Basing on difference in development of lesion mimics, they can be divided into three categories: whole life lesion mimics (WLLM), vegetative initiation lesion mimics (VILM), and reproductive initiation lesion mimics (RILM). Lesion mimics resulted from the programmed cell death and were triggered by light, but not by wounding. The genetic analysis showed that four mutants, lrd32, lrd39, lrd40 and lrd42, were controlled by one or two recessive loci. Among the 18 lrd mutants, lrd37 and lrd40 conferred non-race-specific resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Gene mapping and cloning of Lrd32 and Lrd40 are under way.