This is a authors response to the PREreview of Caseys et al. bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/507491 by Dr. Sophien Kamoun posted to Authorea on July,30 2019. The original study was focused on trying to map out how host-microbe interactions may be shaped in an interaction that does not display evidence of strong selective pressures on either the host or pathogen. The PREreview raised some questions about how to interpret the data considering the sampling structure.