ABSTRACT
The rice blast caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most devastating diseases of rice and can lead to complete failure of the crop under severe cases. The first step in breeding for blast resistance in rice is therefore to identify the novel sources of resistance and cataloguing different blast resistant genes in these genotypes. In the present study, a set of 37 rice genotypes comprising of landraces, advanced breeding lines and released varieties were first characterized for blast resistance under epiphytotic conditions and subsequently different blast resistant genes were catalogued with the help of markers tightly linked to these genes. A total of 22 different blast resistant genes were catalogued in these genotypes. Lot of diversity was found to be present for different genes in the rice genotypes studied. In addition, a set of 2–3 markers were identified which could distinguish genotypes of a particular geographic area from each other.The results are useful for identifying the right combination of genotypes in the resistance breeding programme