parsing fasta files

It would be very helpful if commands like read.otu would parse the header line of sequences in fasta files, stripping off the sequence ID from the other annotation information. For example, when reading

F4DQ9TR01DGJA0|BPC_PICF_Bv6|Fecal_2A|1.667%

mothur should recognize that the name of this sequence is F4DQ9TR01DGJA0l (not "F4DQ9TR01DGJA0|BPC_PICF_Bv6|Fecal_2A|1.667%)