def read_data(aln):
    """ Load the query and reference sequence from the alignment file
    
    Parameters
    ----------
    aln : multiple sequence alignment containing reference taxa and query sequence
    
    Returns
    -------
    dictionary containing sequences with taxon label keys
    
    """

    f = open(aln)
    result = dict()

    taxa = ""
    seq = ""
    for line in f:
        if line[0] == '>':
            if taxa != "":
                result[taxa] = seq
            taxa = line[1:-1]
            seq = ""

        elif line == "/n":
            continue
        else:
            seq += line[:-1]

    if taxa != "":
        result[taxa] = seq


    return result