biostudies-literatureUnknown11(3)Ali SThe study of host specificity has important connections to the question about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 in humans which led to the COVID-19 pandemic-an important open question. There are speculations that bats are a possible origin. Likewise, there are many closely related (corona)viruses, such as SARS, which was found to be transmitted through civets. The study of the different hosts which can be potential carriers and transmitters of deadly viruses to humans is crucial to understanding, mitigating, and preventing current and future pandemics. In coronaviruses, the surface (S) protein, or spike protein, is important in determining host specificity, since it is the point of contact between the virus and the host cell membrane. In this paper, we classify the hosts of over five thousand coronBiology418https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC8945605biostudies-literaturePWM2Vec: An Efficient Embedding Approach for Viral Host Specification from Coronavirus Spike Sequences.PMC8945605Punathil RTAli SBello BChourasia PZhou YPatterson MfalsePWM2Vec: An Efficient Embedding Approach for Viral Host Specification from Coronavirus Spike Sequences.The study of host specificity has important connections to the question about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 in humans which led to the COVID-19 pandemic-an important open question. There are speculations that bats are a possible origin. Likewise, there are many closely related (corona)viruses, such as SARS, which was found to be transmitted through civets. The study of the different hosts which can be potential carriers and transmitters of deadly viruses to humans is crucial to understanding, mitigating, and preventing current and future pandemics. In coronaviruses, the surface (S) protein, or spike protein, is important in determining host specificity, since it is the point of contact between the virus and the host cell membrane. In this paper, we classify the hosts of over five thousand coron2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Mar2025-04-04T22:12:33.221Z2025-04-04T22:12:33.221ZS-EPMC89456053533679210.3390/biology11030418