Fig. 2
From: Liquid–liquid phase separation in human health and diseases
The forces driving LLPS. There are several functions of biomolecular condensates, including the assembly of a large complex, as a reaction crucible promoting biochemical reaction, sequestration of specific proteins to inhibit or promote some reaction, and packaging for transports. Besides, there are two types of multivalent interactions that contribute to LLPS. One is conventional multivalent interactions between protein and protein, protein and RNA, or RNA and RNA. The other is weak, transient, multivalent interactions between intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), including π–π interactions, cation–anion interactions, dipole–dipole interactions, and π–cation interactions
