Flooding stress can occur at various stages of rice growth and development,seriously affecting rice growth and development,yield and quality.Understanding the response mechanisms of rice growth and development to flooding stress and developing new flood-tolerant rice varieties are of great significance for the safe production of rice.This review summarized the progress made in the study of flooding stress in rice in recent years,including flooding types,identification methods,evaluation indicators,physiological and biochemical characteristics,molecular mechanisms,QTLs and genes,and the application of exogenous substances in rice.It suggested that the most representative identification methods and evaluation indicators should be developed,and an effective compound regulator should be developed to enhance the flooding tolerance of rice.Furthermore,combining conventional breeding and molecular marker-assisted selection,utilizing excellent rice germplasm resources,aggregating important flood-tolerant genes and QTLs,will provide references for exploring the flooding tolerance mechanism of rice and breeding flood-tolerant rice varieties.