Table 1.

Major features and components of PPPS and LLPS (relevant references in square brackets).

	polymer–polymer phase separation	liquid–liquid phase separation
structure	chromatin-associated proteins cross-linking different chromatin fragments	chromatin-associated proteins developing multivalent interactions with each other
chromatin dependence	high; on the number/density of chromatin binding sites	low; droplets lacking a chromatin scaffold can also be stable
interaction dependence	low need of interactions among bridging proteins	abundance of protein interactions within the droplet
fluid microenvironment	same composition within and outside of the compartment	different composition inside and outside of the droplet
implicated proteins and structures	histone-tail modifications [14]; cohesin complexes [7,15–17]; CTCF [18]; HP1 proteins [19,20]	P-bodies [21]; stress granules [22]; nucleoli [23]; paraspeckles [24,25]; Cajal bodies, PML bodies, and transcription factories [25–29]
relevant biological processes	senescence-induced CTCF clustering [18]; heterochromatic spreading [30,31]; transcriptional regulation [8–10,32,33]	amyloid formations in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's synuclein plaques and ALS plaques [34]
identification assays	3C-based techniques super-resolution imaging	FRAP analysis ultrafast-scanning FCS protein engineering