diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e6424d4..9694375 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
 # Changelog
+## [0.2.4] - 2024-12-08
+### Added
+- Add `-g` to control the minimum number of unique marker genes (default: 1) required for a species to report its genome copies. Increase `-g` (1 -> 2) lowers recall (detection limit: 0.125 -> 0.25) but improves precision.
+
+
 ## [0.2.3] - 2024-12-01
 ### Fixed
 - Fix a bug introduced in v0.2.2 causing ties not resolved properly. Results should be identical to v0.2.1.
diff --git a/src/melon/__init__.py b/src/melon/__init__.py
index 5dbf1e6..9356a22 100644
--- a/src/melon/__init__.py
+++ b/src/melon/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-__version__ = '0.2.3'
+__version__ = '0.2.4'
 
 from .melon import GenomeProfiler
diff --git a/src/melon/cli.py b/src/melon/cli.py
index 1a926fd..11e4fc3 100755
--- a/src/melon/cli.py
+++ b/src/melon/cli.py
@@ -104,6 +104,14 @@ def cli(argv=sys.argv):
         default=0.9,
         help='Min. secondary-to-primary score ratio to report secondary alignments (-p in minimap2). [0.9]')
 
+    additional.add_argument(
+        '-g',
+        metavar='INT',
+        type=int,
+        choices=range(1, 9),
+        default=1,
+        help='Min. number of unique marker genes required for a species to report its genome copies. [1]')
+
     additional_em.add_argument(
         '-a',
         metavar='INT',
@@ -186,7 +194,7 @@ def run(opt):
         GenomeProfiler(file, opt.db, opt.output, opt.threads).run(
             db_kraken=opt.db_kraken, skip_profile=opt.skip_profile, skip_clean=opt.skip_clean,
             max_target_seqs=opt.m, evalue=opt.e, identity=opt.i, subject_cover=opt.s,
-            secondary_num=opt.n, secondary_ratio=opt.p,
+            secondary_num=opt.n, secondary_ratio=opt.p, min_markers=opt.g,
             max_iterations=opt.a, epsilon=opt.c)
 
         if index == len(opt.FILE) - 1:
diff --git a/src/melon/melon.py b/src/melon/melon.py
index 0744201..c6e7323 100644
--- a/src/melon/melon.py
+++ b/src/melon/melon.py
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ def run_em(self, max_iterations=1000, epsilon=1e-10):
 
     def run(self, db_kraken=None, skip_profile=False, skip_clean=False,
             max_target_seqs=25, evalue=1e-15, identity=0, subject_cover=75,
-            secondary_num=2147483647, secondary_ratio=0.9,
+            secondary_num=2147483647, secondary_ratio=0.9, min_markers=1,
             max_iterations=1000, epsilon=1e-10):
         '''
         Run the pipeline.
@@ -326,10 +326,15 @@ def run(self, db_kraken=None, skip_profile=False, skip_clean=False,
                 ) for kingdom, replacement in replacements.items()}
 
             ## count assigned taxonomic labels
-            self.hits = [[*hit, self.assignments.get(hit[0], replacements.get(hit[1]))] for hit in self.hits]
-            counts, total_counts, lineage2identity = defaultdict(lambda: 0), defaultdict(lambda: 0), defaultdict(list)
+            lineage2rpg = defaultdict(set)
+            for hit in self.hits:
+                hit.append(self.assignments.get(hit[0], replacements.get(hit[1])))
+                lineage2rpg[hit[-1]].add(hit[2])
 
+            counts, total_counts, lineage2identity = defaultdict(lambda: 0), defaultdict(lambda: 0), defaultdict(list)
             for hit in self.hits:
+                if len(lineage2rpg.get(hit[-1])) < min_markers:
+                    hit[-1] = replacements.get(hit[1])
                 total_counts[hit[1]] += 1
                 counts[(hit[-1], hit[1])] += 1
                 lineage2identity[hit[-1]].append(self.identities.get((hit[0], hit[-1]), (0, 0)))