Cellular matter can be spatially and temporally organized into membraneless biomolecular
condensates. The current thinking is that these condensates form and dissolve via phase
transitions driven by one or more condensate-specific multivalent macromolecules known as
scaffolds. Cells likely regulate condensate formation and dissolution by exerting control over
the concentrations of regulatory molecules, which we refer to as ligands. Wyman and Gill
introduced the framework of polyphasic linkage to explain how ligands can exert …