In RNA-Seq experiments, we used 14 hpi for field (eQTL experiment) and 48 hpi for growth chamber inoculations (DE experiment) to study the early response of the plant. As described, the beginning of D. ampelina life cycle suggests a biotrophic phase (Willison et al. 1965) that, in a successful interaction, develops lesions after 7 days, which are typically associated with its necrotrophic phase (Wilcox et al. 2015). This suggests that both experiments were conducted during the biotrophic phase of the pathogen, which is consistent with the absence of symptoms at the time of sample collection, and the plant transcriptome response activated toward a biotrophic response. In other pathosystems, such as the hemibiotrophic pathogen Phytophthora infestans in potato, 48 hpi also showed consistency between the absence of symptoms and a transcriptome response associated with a plant–biotroph pathogen interaction (Zuluaga et al. 2016).