Predicting future mamalian hosts of SARS-CoV-2 Coronaviruses can infect both animals and humans. Coronavirus infections are common, and some strains are zoonotic, which means they can be transmitted between animals and humans. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), emerged in Wuhan City, China, in late December 2019. Though the exact animal reservoir of the virus is yet to be identified, scientists believe the virus came from a horseshoe bat and jumped to an intermediate host before making its way to the human population. Researchers at the Beijing Computational Science Research Center and Peking University analyzed sequences of the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) proteins from 16 mammals and predicted the structures of ACE2- receptor-binding domain (RBD) complexes.