Building Phylogenetic Tree from OTU table without FASTA files

[Hannah Cunningham]

Hi,

Not sure if this is possible but I have started from a OTU table generated from another pipeline and would like to carry on the down-stream analysis using QIIME. I was able to convert the classic OTU table to a biom format. However, to proceed with alpha, beta diversity, etc. I need a phylogenetic tree correct? 

Is it possible to generate a tree without the fasta files? I don't have access to those at this point and am hoping there is a way around it. 

Thank you,

Hannah

[Greg Caporaso]

Hi Hannah, 

That's not possible to do, but you can use non-phylogenetic diversity metrics. If you're using core_diversity_analyses.py, you can pass the --nonphylogenetic_diversity parameter, and a tree won't be required. 

Greg