Abstract: The grain-filling period of rice is critical to the formation of rice grain yield and its quality, whereas the air temperature in this period has significant effects on the rice grain-filling. With the global warming and the increasing frequency and amplitude of extreme temperature
events, to study the response characteristics of rice grain-filling and grain quality to temperature stress and the related physiological and biochemical mechanisms is one of the research hotspots in rice cultivation. Taking the air temperature during rice grain-filling as the cutin point, this paper discussed the appropriate temperature for the formation of rice grain yield and its quality, the critical period affected by temperature, and the physiological and biochemical characteristics of rice under temperature stress. The key stage the temperature affected the rice grain yield and its quality was the early period of grain-filling (20 days after full heading). The optimum temperature, 21-26 ℃, was conducive to the enrichment and deposition of starch in rice grain, while too high or too low temperature was unbeneficial to the grain yield and its quality. Under temperature stress, the physiological and biochemical activities of rice decreased, its photosynthetic functions declined, resistance to adversity lowered, and dry matter accumulation and translocation were restrained, resulting in the decline of rice production and the deterioration of rice grain quality. These findings could provide reference for the rice cultivation of high yield and high quality  and the research of the temperature in rice grain-filling period.