# Converting biom files (with taxonomic info) for import in R with Phyloseq

**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/converting-biom-files-with-taxonomic-info-for-import-in-r-with-phyloseq/2542
**Category:** User Support
**Tags:** taxonomy, biom, merge
**Created:** [January 11, 2018, 4:19pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/converting-biom-files-with-taxonomic-info-for-import-in-r-with-phyloseq/2542 "2018-01-11T16:19:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

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### Author: ![Nicholas\_Bokulich](https://forum.qiime2.org/user_avatar/forum.qiime2.org/nicholas_bokulich/32/19937_2.png) [@Nicholas\_Bokulich](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/Nicholas_Bokulich)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/converting-biom-files-with-taxonomic-info-for-import-in-r-with-phyloseq/2542/3 "2018-01-11T16:38:11Z")

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Hi @Kat,  
It sounds like your merging protocol is disrupting the format expected by biom. I do not really know the answer to this specific error, since biom support questions are not covered by this forum (biom format support is on the qiime1 forum) but I may be able to offer an alternative.

See [this post](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/handoff-to-qiime1-and-phyloseq/1275/3). Specifically, using the [biom add-metadata](http://biom-format.org/documentation/adding_metadata.html) command should do the taxonomy merging without the need to convert to tsv and round-trip back to biom format. In general, biom format files are much happier when the biom commands are used to modify files.

That would give you a biom with taxonomy merged.

I hope that helps!

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