# Remove.lineages error **URL:** \ **Category:** Commands in mothur\ **Created:** [October 25, 2018, 2:31pm UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/remove-lineages-error/19570 "2018-10-25T14:31:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![luker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@luker](https://forum.mothur.org/u/luker)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 2:31pm UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/remove-lineages-error/19570/1 "2018-10-25T14:31:02Z")
**Upon reaching the stage in the mothur pipeline where I need to classify my sequences and remove undesirable lineages, mothur seems to remove all my sequences! I am not entirely sure what I am doing wrong, but I suspect it has something to do with my reference and taxonomy files.** **Can anybody help me here?** **This is my workflow** classify.seqs(fasta=pvttest.trim.contigs.good.unique.good.filter.unique.precluster.pick.fasta, count=pvttest.trim.contigs.good.unique.good.filter.unique.precluster.denovo.vsearch.pick.count\_table, reference=silva.bacteria.fasta, taxonomy=silva.bacteria.silva.tax, cutoff=80) It took 72 secs to classify 25927 sequences. It took 3 secs to create the summary file for 25927 sequences. Output File Names: pvttest.trim.contigs.good.unique.good.filter.unique.precluster.pick.silva.wang.taxonomy pvttest.trim.contigs.good.unique.good.filter.unique.precluster.pick.silva.wang.tax.summary remove.lineage(fasta=pvttest.trim.contigs.good.unique.good.filter.unique.precluster.pick.fasta, count=pvttest.trim.contigs.good.unique.good.filter.unique.precluster.denovo.vsearch.pick.count\_table, taxonomy=pvttest.trim.contigs.good.unique.good.filter.unique.precluster.pick.pds.wang.taxonomy, taxon=Chloroplast-Mitochondria-unknown-Archaea-Eukaryota) [NOTE]: The count file should contain only unique names, so mothur assumes your fasta, list and taxonomy files also contain only uniques. Your taxonomy file contains only sequences from Chloroplast-Mitochondria-unknown -Archaea-Eukaryota. Your fasta file contains only sequences from Chloroplast-Mitochondria-unknown-Ar chaea-Eukaryota. Removing group: 5\_PAW2 because all sequences have been removed. **etc. etc. for each group** Your group file contains only sequences from Chloroplast-Mitochondria-unknown-Ar chaea-Eukaryota. ---
**Author:** ![pschloss](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forum.mothur.org/pschloss/32/4_2.png) [@pschloss](https://forum.mothur.org/u/pschloss)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/remove-lineages-error/19570/2 "2018-10-25T17:39:12Z")
In `classify.seqs` it looks like you are using the SILVA reference but in `remove.lineage` it looks like you’re using my RDP reference. Can you try running `classify.seqs` with the trainset files rather than the SILVA files and see what happens? Also, just to be clear, you did sequence 16S rRNA genes, right? Pat ---
**Author:** ![luker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@luker](https://forum.mothur.org/u/luker)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2018, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/remove-lineages-error/19570/3 "2018-10-26T12:35:59Z")
Hi Pat, Thank you for your response! I’ve just re-run classify.seqs and remove.lineage as above, but with the trainset9\_032012.pds.fasta and .tax files. The same error has occurred sadly. Yes it is for 16S rRNA genes 🙂 Luke ---
**Author:** ![pschloss](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forum.mothur.org/pschloss/32/4_2.png) [@pschloss](https://forum.mothur.org/u/pschloss)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/remove-lineages-error/19570/4 "2018-10-26T19:09:43Z")
What are you sequencing? Also, can you merge your two threads so we don’t have to ping pong back and forth? The issues are likely the same. ---
**Author:** ![luker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@luker](https://forum.mothur.org/u/luker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/remove-lineages-error/19570/5 "2018-10-28T21:59:01Z")
I’m sequencing eDNA samples of the cultured fish microbiota run through the MiSeq platform. 🙂 . I should clarify, I have two datasets here, one of the ponds the fish live in, and another of the water samples taken from fish held in a bucket (before adding the fish and then afterwards). The sequences on the “remove.lineages error” thread are the latter fish dataset. The “warning notice from classify.otu” thread is referring to pond water samples. With the pond water samples, excluding the aforementioned warning notices, I was able to get through the entire pipeline with virtually no issues. You can imagine that I am a little perplexed why the same procedure is not working with the fish samples. Thank you for your help here, I am fairly new to using mothur, and with my project supervisor currently out of action, any help is appreciated. Luke ---
**Author:** ![pschloss](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forum.mothur.org/pschloss/32/4_2.png) [@pschloss](https://forum.mothur.org/u/pschloss)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/remove-lineages-error/19570/6 "2018-10-29T17:50:29Z")
Can you post the first few lines of `pvttest.trim.contigs.good.unique.good.filter.unique.precluster.pick.pds.wang.taxonomy`? ---
**Author:** ![luker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@luker](https://forum.mothur.org/u/luker)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 3:42pm UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/remove-lineages-error/19570/7 "2018-10-30T15:42:27Z")
> |M01625\_131\_000000000-C4WTY\_1\_1101\_27864\_15559|unknown(100);unknown\_unclassified(100);unknown\_unclassified(100);unknown\_unclassified(100);unknown\_unclassified(100);unknown\_unclassified(100);| At this step I had 25,927 sequences, all of them have been classified as unknown. The input fasta file for the classify.seqs step (pvttest.trim.contigs.good.unique.good.filter.unique.precluster.pick.fasta) had sequences in the following format: > > M01625\_131\_000000000-C4WTY\_1\_1111\_18207\_5125 > > TAC–GG-AG-GGT—GCG-A-G-C-G-T–T–AT-C-CGG-AA—TC-A-C-T–GG-GT–TT–A–AA-GG-GT-AC-G-TA-G-G-C-G–G–T-TA-A-T-T-----AA etc. etc. Could the reason why mothur is mis-classifying sequences be that the format the sequences are presented is different between the input fasta and reference file? ---
**Author:** ![pschloss](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forum.mothur.org/pschloss/32/4_2.png) [@pschloss](https://forum.mothur.org/u/pschloss)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://forum.mothur.org/t/remove-lineages-error/19570/8 "2018-11-06T17:41:24Z")
I’m not sure what you mean by different formats. The gap characters are fine - they’re automatically removed from the input sequences before doing anything. When I run the sequence you posted with `silva.bacteria.fasta`, I get (I named the sequence “test”)… ```auto test Bacteria(100);Bacteroidetes(86);Bacteroidetes_unclassified(86);Bacteroidetes_unclassified(86);Bacteroidetes_unclassified(86);Bacteroidetes_unclassified(86);Bacteroidetes_unclassified(86);Bacteroidetes_unclassified(86);Bacteroidetes_unclassified(86); ``` Can you email your input fasta file and the mothur logfile to [mothur.bugs@gmail.com](mailto:mothur.bugs@gmail.com) so we can take a look? Please include a link to this thread so we can report back.