# Retrieving Taxonomic Information

#### 2016-05-03

This vignette will introduce users to the retrieval of taxonomic information with `myTAI`. The `taxonomy()` function implemented in `myTAI` relies on the powerful package taxize. Nevertheless, taxonomic information retrieval has been customized for the `myTAI` standard and for organism specific information retrieval.

Specifically, the `taxonomy()` function implemented in `myTAI` can be used to classify genomes according to phylogenetic classification into Phylostrata (Phylostratigraphy) or to retrieve species specific taxonomic information when performing Divergence Stratigraphy (see Introduction for details).

## Taxonomic Information Retrieval

The `myTAI` package provides the `taxonomy()` function to retrieve taxonomic information.

In the following example we will obtain the taxonomic hierarchy of `Arabidopsis thaliana` from NCBI Taxonomy.

    # retrieving the taxonomic hierarchy of "Arabidopsis thaliana"
    # from NCBI Taxonomy
    taxonomy( organism = "Arabidopsis thaliana",
              db       = "ncbi",
              output   = "classification" )

                       name         rank      id
    1    cellular organisms      no rank  131567
    2             Eukaryota superkingdom    2759
    3         Viridiplantae      kingdom   33090
    4          Streptophyta       phylum   35493
    5        Streptophytina      no rank  131221
    6           Embryophyta      no rank    3193
    7          Tracheophyta      no rank   58023
    8         Euphyllophyta      no rank   78536
    9         Spermatophyta      no rank   58024
    10        Magnoliophyta      no rank    3398
    11      Mesangiospermae      no rank 1437183
    12       eudicotyledons      no rank   71240
    13           Gunneridae      no rank   91827
    14         Pentapetalae      no rank 1437201
    15               rosids     subclass   71275
    16              malvids      no rank   91836
    17          Brassicales        order    3699
    18         Brassicaceae       family    3700
    19           Camelineae        tribe  980083
    20          Arabidopsis        genus    3701
    21 Arabidopsis thaliana      species    3702

The `organism` argument takes the scientific name of a query organism, the `db` argument specifies that database from which the corresponding taxonomic information shall be retrieved, e.g. `ncbi` (NCBI Taxonomy) and `itis` (Integrated Taxonomic Information System) and the `output` argument specifies the type of taxonomic information that shall be returned for the query organism, e.g. `classification`, `taxid`, or `children`.

The output of `classification` is a `data.frame` storing the taxonomic hierarchy of `Arabidopsis thaliana` starting with `cellular organisms` up to `Arabidopsis thaliana`. The first column stores the taxonomic name, the second column the taxonomic rank, and the third column the NCBI Taxonomy id for corresponding taxa.

Analogous `classification` information can be obtained from different databases.

    # retrieving the taxonomic hierarchy of "Arabidopsis thaliana"
    # from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System
    taxonomy( organism = "Arabidopsis thaliana",
              db       = "itis",
              output   = "classification" )

                  name          rank     id
    1          Plantae       Kingdom 202422
    2    Viridiplantae    Subkingdom 954898
    3     Streptophyta  Infrakingdom 846494
    4      Embryophyta Superdivision 954900
    5     Tracheophyta      Division 846496
    6  Spermatophytina   Subdivision 846504
    7    Magnoliopsida         Class  18063
    8          Rosanae    Superorder 846548
    9      Brassicales         Order 822943
    10    Brassicaceae        Family  22669
    11     Arabidopsis         Genus  23040

The `output` argument allows you to directly access taxonomy ids for a query organism or species.

    # retrieving the taxonomy id of the query organism from NCBI Taxonomy
    taxonomy( organism = "Arabidopsis thaliana",
              db       = "ncbi",
              output   = "taxid" )

        id
    1 3702

    # retrieving the taxonomy id of the query organism from Integrated Taxonomic Information Service
    taxonomy( organism = "Arabidopsis",
              db       = "itis",
              output   = "taxid" )

        id
    1 23040

So far, the following data bases can be accesses to retrieve taxonomic information:

- `db = "itis"` : Integrated Taxonomic Information Service
- `db = "ncbi"` : National Center for Biotechnology Information

## Retrieve Children Nodes

Another `output` supported by `taxonomy()` is `children` that returns the immediate children taxa for a query organism. This feature is useful to determine species relationships for quantifying recent evolutionary conservation with Divergence Stratigraphy.

    # retrieve children taxa of the query organism stored in the correspondning database
    taxonomy( organism = "Arabidopsis",
              db       = "ncbi",
              output   = "children" )

       childtaxa_id                                                     childtaxa_name childtaxa_rank
    1       1547872                                              Arabidopsis umezawana        species
    2       1328956 (Arabidopsis thaliana x Arabidopsis arenosa) x Arabidopsis suecica        species
    3       1240361                         Arabidopsis thaliana x Arabidopsis arenosa        species
    4        869750                          Arabidopsis thaliana x Arabidopsis lyrata        species
    5        412662                                            Arabidopsis pedemontana        species
    6        378006                         Arabidopsis arenosa x Arabidopsis thaliana        species
    7        347883                                              Arabidopsis arenicola        species
    8        302551                                              Arabidopsis petrogena        species
    9         97980                                               Arabidopsis croatica        species
    10        97979                                            Arabidopsis cebennensis        species
    11        81970                                                Arabidopsis halleri        species
    12        59690                                             Arabidopsis kamchatica        species
    13        59689                                                 Arabidopsis lyrata        species
    14        45251                                               Arabidopsis neglecta        species
    15        45249                                                Arabidopsis suecica        species
    16        38785                                                Arabidopsis arenosa        species
    17         3702                                               Arabidopsis thaliana        species

    # retrieve children taxa of the query organism stored in the correspondning database
    taxonomy( organism = "Arabidopsis",
              db       = "itis",
              output   = "children" )

       parentname parenttsn rankname             taxonname    tsn
    1 Arabidopsis     23040  Species  Arabidopsis thaliana  23041
    2 Arabidopsis     23040  Species Arabidopsis arenicola 823113
    3 Arabidopsis     23040  Species   Arabidopsis arenosa 823130
    4 Arabidopsis     23040  Species    Arabidopsis lyrata 823171

These results allow us to choose `subject` organisms for Divergence Stratigraphy.