The architecture of panicles is an important agronomic trait, that the panicle apical abortion can cause significant yield reduction in rice. In the present study, in order to better understand the regulation mechanism of rice panicle development, the molecular characterization and phenotype analysis of panicle apical abortion T-DNA mutants were performed. Three panicle apical abortion（paa） mutants, paa1, paa2 and paa3, were identified and characterized from POSTECH Rice T-DNA Insertion mutant population. T-DNA insertion sites of these mutants were on the 1^st intron of paa1, 8^th exon of paa2 and 3’-UTR of paa3 at the rice gene of LOC_Os04g56160, respectively.Three primers were designed on both sides of the T-DNA insertion site on LOC_Os04g56160 gene and T-DNA fragments, respectively, then homozygotes and heterozygotes of paa1, paa2 and paa3 were identified by PCR. The genotypic segregation of the paa1 and paa2 was tightly linked with the phenotypic segregation of panicle apical abortion（bald tip） in the T₃ progeny of their heterozygotes, while the apical panicle development of paa3 was normal. All F₁ progeny of the cross between paa1 and PAA-Hwa（panicle apical abortion mutant which point mutation of LOC_Os04g56160） displayed panicle apical abortion phenotype. Agronomic traits of the paa1 and paa2 homozygotes was significantly reduced compared to wild type such as plant height, spike length, number of tillers and spike number per panicle. However,paa3 was reduced only in plant height, spike length and spike number. All these results indicated that paa1 and paa2 were panicle apical abortion mutants, and LOC_Os04g56160 confers panicle apical abortion characters. This study laid a theoretical foundation for the research on rice spike development.