Hi all,

I am looking for a bioperl object that can be abused to function as a
suitable 'taxon' object, where I mean 'taxon' as understood by the NEXUS
file format (i.e. not strictly an entity from a taxonomy, but more loosely
an OTU). 

The object would primarily function as a way to relate nodes in trees to
sequences in an alignment (a foreign key that both nodes and sequences refer
to), and secondarily as the keeper of the canonical name of the OTU, such
that a sequence named 'Homo_sapiens|EF177447.1/12-56' and a node named 'Homo
sapiens (constrained monophyly)' can still be understood to refer to the
same thing - the OTU 'Homo sapiens sapiens' (for example).

I was thinking that a (possibly expanded) Bio::Species might work if there
was some sensible way of appending references to node and sequence objects
to it (or otherwise associate them with each other), but I am writing *to
solicit any and all suggestions*. I am looking for something similar to
Bio::Phylo::Taxa::Taxon.

Any and all comments and suggestions greatly appreciated!

Best wishes,

Rutger Vos

