The study deals with the characterization of Pyricularia oryzae strains collected from rice plant lesions found in Italian rice fields during growing season 2011. In total 140 strains were isolated and classified based on micro-satellite analysis, which led to the identification of 3 clades (group I, group II and group III). A representative strain was selected for each clade and sequenced with Illumina technology at Centro Tecnologico Padano for further analyses