Using FEAST for metagenomic data

[AUAShen]

Dear FEAST developers,

Since metagenomic data is more and more common in the field, I am wandering how FEAST can be apply to metagenomic data. For example, can FEAST take MetaPhlAn profiles (relative abundance) as input? How will you suggest to convert the relative abundance table into the count matrix for FEAST? Will any scale factor would work the same?

Additionally, I am concerned about using converted relative abundance table as input since it was stated in the paper that "Specifically, it addresses count uncertainty rather than directly transforming counts to relative abundances, and also models the competition to be counted (between taxa) instead of treating the counts of each taxon as independent".

Best wishes,
Shen