What do the vertical bars indicate? (Around the different guilds)

[emjhodgson]

Thank you for this dataset and tool.

What do the vertical bars mean, that sometimes appear around guilds?

E.g. for Microthyrium, the guild is "|Epiphyte|-Plant Saprotroph-Undefined Saprotroph" and Epiphyte appears between vertical bars.

I couldn't find it explained in the Nguyen et al. 2016 paper or on this github page.

Many thanks.

[NamLQ]

I made contact with the author, and here is what he said about the pipe:

Dear Nam Le Quang,

Thank you for reaching out. Yes, you are correct with the pipe symbols. They designate a primary guild. This is a relatively new addition to the database (v2.0). I've been swamped this spring so I have not had a chance to update the readme yet. If you end up using the database, please cite it as FUNGuild v2.

Good luck with your research and it's great to see a strong microbiome group in Viet Nam.

Best,
Nhu

[SalmaSarker]

Hi @NamLQ

I have a question regarding OTUs assigned to multiple guilds in FUNGuild. I understand that when a vertical bar (|) is present, the guild before the bar is the primary assignment, and I should retain that (especially if confidence is ‘Probable’ or ‘Highly Probable’). However, I am unsure how to handle OTUs that have multiple guild assignments but no vertical bar. Should these OTUs be considered ‘Ambiguous’ and excluded from guild-level summaries, or should all assigned guilds be retained in some way (e.g., keeping the first listed or duplicating across categories)? Could you clarify the recommended best practice for handling such cases?”
I could not find the answer.

Thanks in advance