RESEARCH ARTICLE Exploring genetic diversity and disease response of cultivated rice accessions (Oryza spp.) against Pyricularia oryzae under rainfed upland conditions in Benin Octaviano Igor Yelome . Kris Audenaert . Sofie Landschoot . Alexandre Dansi . Wouter Vanhove . Drissa Silue . Patrick Van Damme . Geert Haesaert Received: 6 November 2017 / Accepted: 26 March 2018 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract The main goal of this study is to gain insight into the relationship between the genetic profile of cultivated rice (Oryza spp.) accessions and their resistance to rice blast. Therefore, the genetic and phenotypic variability of a set of 350 cultivated rice accessions originating from Africa (Benin, Mali and Nigeria, Ivory Coast etc.) was examined. Seventy- seven fluorescent amplified fragment polymorphism (AFLP) markers were used to gain insight into the genetic variation and to classify the germplasm collection. In addition, the rice germplasm was assessed for its resistance to blast disease caused by Pyricularia oryzae in upland field conditions. Huge differences in responses of rice accessions to P. oryzae were observed, ranging from highly susceptible to highly resistant. Twelve percent of all accessions were highly resistant to P. oryzae. Based on their AFLP marker profile these highly resistant accessions could be separated from the other accessions. Stepwise regression revealed that the best prediction of the blast resistance level was achieved with a maximum number of 13 AFLP markers. Marker CTA22 was the most important for accurate prediction of blast resistance, this marker was present in all highly Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-018-0638-1) con- tains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. O. I. Yelome (&) Á K. Audenaert Á S. Landschoot Á W. Vanhove Á P. Van Damme Á G. Haesaert Department of Plants and Crops, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium e-mail: igoryelome@gmail.com; OctavianoIgorNoudehouenou.Yelome@ugent.be S. Landschoot Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Valentin Vaerwyckweg, 1, 9000 Ghent, Belgium A. Dansi Faculte ´ des Sciences et Techniques de Dassa, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie, Ressources Ge ´ne ´tiques et Ame ´lioration des Espe `ces Animales et Ve ´ge ´tales (BIORAVE), Universite ´ d’Abomey, Cotonou, Benin D. Silue AfricaRice Center, 01 B.P.O. 2031, Cotonou, Benin Present Address: D. Silue AfricaRice Center, 01 B.P. 2551, Bouake 01, Co ˆte d’Ivoire P. Van Damme Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 21 Prague 6, Suchdol, Czech Republic 123 Genet Resour Crop Evol https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-018-0638-1