Leaf shape is one of the factors important for crop architecture, and uncovering the genes that control the leaf shape development will be important for ideal plant architecture breeding and basic theory research. By screening the maize mutant library generated from Mutator active hybird lines, we identified a rolling leaf mutant rol1, which showed dramatic rolling phenotype on its leaves toward the adaxial side at the elongation stage. Genetic analysis indicated that the rolling leaf phenotype was controlled by a signal recessive gene. We constructed the F2 segregation population using inbred line B73 and rol1 to map the target gene, and the ROL1 gene was roughly mapped to the interval 165-185 Mb on the chromosome 5 by BSR-Seq strategy sequencing the mutant and wild type pool derived from F2 population. Furthermore, using the segregation population, we narrowed down the candidate region to 5 Mb interval between SSR markers umc1822 and umc1155. These results provide useful and confident information for cloning and functional characterization of ROL1 gene in the future.