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The rice (Oryza sativa L.) genome has become the reference genome to which others are compared. Part of the reason for this is that rice has the lowest DNA content of the common cereals and its gene content and gene order are found in other grass species used for food. Having the genome sequence of rice, both japonica and indica, allows comparisons with regard to genomic structure, gene constitution, and gene expression. Map locations for single-copy genes, families of genes, and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) are often compared among species, usually with rice as the reference. Specialized databases have been developed to facilitate cross-species homology relationships relative to genome and EST sequencing, protein structure, gene function, and other useful aspects. The evolutionary relationship of rice and several other cereals such as maize (Zea mays L.) and sorghum is clearly observed when highlighting syntenic regions. The colinearity of rice and American wildrice (Zizania palustris) has been exploited to develop a molecular genetic map and to locate QTLs in wildrice. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the value of rice for comparative genome referencing.