diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index c1bb49521..154782d03 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ export(getPrevalentFeatures)
 export(getPrevalentTaxa)
 export(getRareFeatures)
 export(getRareTaxa)
+export(getTaxonomyRanks)
 export(getTopFeatures)
 export(getTopTaxa)
 export(getUniqueFeatures)
@@ -78,6 +79,7 @@ export(runJSD)
 export(runNMDS)
 export(runOverlap)
 export(runUnifrac)
+export(setTaxonomyRanks)
 export(splitByRanks)
 export(splitOn)
 export(subsampleCounts)
@@ -308,6 +310,7 @@ importFrom(tibble,rownames_to_column)
 importFrom(tibble,tibble)
 importFrom(tidyr,pivot_longer)
 importFrom(tidyr,pivot_wider)
+importFrom(utils,assignInMyNamespace)
 importFrom(utils,combn)
 importFrom(utils,head)
 importFrom(utils,read.delim)
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index b052af1cd..e97cded4f 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -104,3 +104,4 @@ Changes in version 1.11.x
 + cluster: Overwrite old results instead of failing
 + getPrevalence: bugfix, if assay contains NA values, it does not end up to NA anymore.
 + getExperimentCrossCorrelation fix: enable using of sampleMap in MAE.
++ Implemented the setTaxonomyRanks function to specify which ranks are recognized as taxonomy ranks.
diff --git a/R/loadFromMetaphlan.R b/R/loadFromMetaphlan.R
index 0db66b343..dccf00a28 100644
--- a/R/loadFromMetaphlan.R
+++ b/R/loadFromMetaphlan.R
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@
 NULL
 
 loadFromMetaphlan <- function(
-        file, colData = sample_meta, sample_meta = NULL, phy_tree = NULL, ...){
+        file, colData = sample_meta, sample_meta = NULL, phy_tree = NULL,...){
     ################################ Input check ################################
     if(!.is_non_empty_string(file)){
         stop("'file' must be a single character value.",
@@ -137,6 +137,8 @@ loadFromMetaphlan <- function(
             altExp(tse, rank) <- se_objects[[rank]]
         }
     }
+    # Set taxonomy ranks using .set_taxonomy_ranks
+    .set_ranks_based_on_rowdata(tse,...)
     
     # Load sample meta data if it is provided
     if( !is.null(colData) ) {
@@ -392,3 +394,23 @@ loadFromMetaphlan <- function(
     }
     return(data)
 }
+.set_ranks_based_on_rowdata <- function(tse,...){
+    # Get ranks from rowData
+    ranks <- colnames(rowData(tse))
+    # Ranks must be character columns
+    is_char <- lapply(rowData(tse), function(x) is.character(x) || is.factor(x))
+    is_char <- unlist(is_char)
+    ranks <- ranks[ is_char ]
+    # rowData is empty, cannot set ranks
+    if( length(ranks) == 0 ){
+        warning(
+            "Ranks cannot be set. rowData(x) does not include columns ",
+            "specifying character values.", call. = FALSE)
+        return(NULL)
+    }
+    # Finally, set ranks and give message
+    tse <- setTaxonomyRanks(ranks)
+    message("TAXONOMY_RANKS set to: '", paste0(ranks, collapse = "', '"), "'")
+    return(NULL)
+}
+
diff --git a/R/taxonomy.R b/R/taxonomy.R
index cc8d473c1..97fc0e6ca 100644
--- a/R/taxonomy.R
+++ b/R/taxonomy.R
@@ -71,7 +71,8 @@
 #'   (default: \code{FALSE})
 #'
 #' @param ... optional arguments not used currently.
-#'
+#' 
+#' @param ranks Avector of ranks to be set
 #' @details
 #' Taxonomic information from the \code{IdTaxa} function of \code{DECIPHER}
 #' package are returned as a special class. With \code{as(taxa,"DataFrame")}
@@ -116,6 +117,17 @@
 #' mapTaxonomy(GlobalPatterns, taxa = "Escherichia")
 #' # returns information on a single output
 #' mapTaxonomy(GlobalPatterns, taxa = "Escherichia",to="Family")
+#' 
+#' # setTaxonomyRanks
+#' tse <- GlobalPatterns
+#' colnames(rowData(tse))[1] <- "TAXA1"
+#' 
+#' setTaxonomyRanks(colnames(rowData(tse)))
+#' # Taxonomy ranks set to: taxa1 phylum class order family genus species 
+#' 
+#' # getTaxonomyRanks is to get/check if the taxonomic ranks is set to "TAXA1"
+#' getTaxonomyRanks()
+#' 
 NULL
 
 #' @rdname taxonomy-methods
@@ -197,6 +209,32 @@ setMethod("checkTaxonomy", signature = c(x = "SummarizedExperiment"),
     }
 )
 
+#' @rdname taxonomy-methods
+#' @importFrom utils assignInMyNamespace
+#' @aliases checkTaxonomy
+#' @export
+# Function to set taxonomy ranks
+setTaxonomyRanks <- function(ranks) {
+    ranks <- tolower(ranks)
+    # Check if rank is a character vector with length >= 1
+    if (!is.character(ranks) || length(ranks) < 1 
+        || any(ranks == "" | ranks == " " | ranks == "\t" | ranks == "-" | ranks == "_")
+        || any(grepl("\\s{2,}", ranks))) {
+        stop("Input 'rank' should be a character vector with non-empty strings,
+             no spaces, tabs, hyphens, underscores, and non-continuous spaces."
+             , call. = FALSE)
+    }
+    #Replace default value of mia::TAXONOMY_RANKS
+    assignInMyNamespace("TAXONOMY_RANKS", ranks)
+}
+
+#' @rdname taxonomy-methods
+#' @export
+# Function to get taxonomy ranks
+getTaxonomyRanks <- function() {
+    return(TAXONOMY_RANKS)
+}
+
 .check_taxonomic_rank <- function(rank, x){
     if(length(rank) != 1L){
         stop("'rank' must be a single character value.",call. = FALSE)
diff --git a/man/taxonomy-methods.Rd b/man/taxonomy-methods.Rd
index d224bfa10..2e9c2a6b3 100644
--- a/man/taxonomy-methods.Rd
+++ b/man/taxonomy-methods.Rd
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 \alias{taxonomyRankEmpty,SummarizedExperiment-method}
 \alias{checkTaxonomy}
 \alias{checkTaxonomy,SummarizedExperiment-method}
+\alias{setTaxonomyRanks}
+\alias{getTaxonomyRanks}
 \alias{getTaxonomyLabels}
 \alias{getTaxonomyLabels,SummarizedExperiment-method}
 \alias{mapTaxonomy}
@@ -43,6 +45,10 @@ checkTaxonomy(x, ...)
 
 \S4method{checkTaxonomy}{SummarizedExperiment}(x)
 
+setTaxonomyRanks(ranks)
+
+getTaxonomyRanks()
+
 getTaxonomyLabels(x, ...)
 
 \S4method{getTaxonomyLabels}{SummarizedExperiment}(
@@ -74,6 +80,8 @@ removed if \code{na.rm = TRUE} before agglomeration}
 
 \item{...}{optional arguments not used currently.}
 
+\item{ranks}{Avector of ranks to be set}
+
 \item{with_rank}{\code{TRUE} or \code{FALSE}: Should the level be add as a
 suffix? For example: "Phylum:Crenarchaeota" (default:
 \code{with_rank = FALSE})}
@@ -170,6 +178,17 @@ mapTaxonomy(GlobalPatterns)
 mapTaxonomy(GlobalPatterns, taxa = "Escherichia")
 # returns information on a single output
 mapTaxonomy(GlobalPatterns, taxa = "Escherichia",to="Family")
+
+# setTaxonomyRanks
+tse <- GlobalPatterns
+colnames(rowData(tse))[1] <- "TAXA1"
+
+setTaxonomyRanks(colnames(rowData(tse)))
+# Taxonomy ranks set to: taxa1 phylum class order family genus species 
+
+# getTaxonomyRanks is to get/check if the taxonomic ranks is set to "TAXA1"
+getTaxonomyRanks()
+
 }
 \seealso{
 \code{\link[=agglomerate-methods]{agglomerateByRank}},