Hi Even,
You do not need to start over. The OTUs that were removed by the first split.abund command would be removed again after the additional groups are removed and you run remove.rare on the new shared file. Here’s a simple example:
File = my.shared made from my.list and my.group
label Group numOtus Otu001 Otu002 Otu003 Otu004 Otu005 Otu006 Otu007 Otu008 Otu009 Otu010 Otu011 Otu012 Otu013 Otu014
0.14 A 14 16 0 21 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
0.14 B 14 12 2 2 0 13 6 0 2 2 2 1 0 0 1
0.14 C 14 0 25 4 25 0 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
mothur > split.abund(list=my.list, group=my.group, cutoff=10)
mothur > make.shared(list=current, group=current)
File = my.0.14.abund.shared
label Group numOtus Otu001 Otu002 Otu003 Otu004 Otu005 Otu006
0.14 A 6 16 0 21 1 0 2
0.14 B 6 12 2 2 0 13 6
0.14 C 6 0 25 4 25 0 4
mothur > remove.groups(shared=my.0.14.abund.shared, groups=C)
File = my.0.14.abund.pick.shared
label Group numOtus Otu001 Otu002 Otu003 Otu004 Otu005 Otu006
0.14 A 6 16 0 21 1 0 2
0.14 B 6 12 2 2 0 13 6
mothur > remove.rare(shared=my.0.14.abund.pick.shared, nseqs=9) - removes OTUs <= nseqs
File = my.0.14.abund.pick.shared
label Group numOtus Otu001 Otu003 Otu005
0.14 A 3 16 21 0
0.14 B 3 12 2 13
VS:
File = my.shared made from my.list and my.group
label Group numOtus Otu001 Otu002 Otu003 Otu004 Otu005 Otu006 Otu007 Otu008 Otu009 Otu010 Otu011 Otu012 Otu013 Otu014
0.14 A 14 16 0 21 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
0.14 B 14 12 2 2 0 13 6 0 2 2 2 1 0 0 1
0.14 C 14 0 25 4 25 0 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
mothur > remove.groups(shared=my.shared, groups=C)
File = my.pick.shared
label Group numOtus Otu001 Otu002 Otu003 Otu004 Otu005 Otu006 Otu008 Otu009 Otu010 Otu011 Otu012 Otu014
0.14 A 12 16 0 21 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 0
0.14 B 12 12 2 2 0 13 6 2 2 2 1 0 1
mothur > remove.rare(shared=my.pick.shared, nseqs=9) - removes OTUs <= nseqs
File = my.pick.0.14.pick.shared
label Group numOtus Otu001 Otu003 Otu005
0.14 A 3 16 21 0
0.14 B 3 12 2 13