Almeida, SaraCarneiro, JoãoPratas, Diogo2026-06-012026-06-012026-05-227f95cff6-63b9-4f5b-91e8-a40d8912ffeehttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/57872Minimal Relative Absent Words (mRAWs) are the shortest nucleotide sequences occurring in one genome, such as a pathogen, while being absent from another, such as the host, making them potential genomic signatures. Recent work on SARS-CoV-2 showed that shorter mRAWs tend to exhibit higher GC-content than both the human and virus genomes and transcriptomes and identified a persistent mRAW in the Spike gene, a key protein involved in host-cell entry, highlighting the relevance of absent words for pathogen detection.engconference poster not in proceedings