Figure 3.

Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) drive the formation of higher-order assemblies, which display different RNA-binding specificity and affinity properties compared to the single components. (a) In membrane-less compartments, IDRs establish homotypic (depicted in black) or heterotypic (in blue) multivalent interactions, enabling the formation of multi-modular complexes of RNA-binding proteins that are able to recruit selected RNA species. (b) Some RNA-binding proteins assemble amyloid-like structures that can constrain the protruding RNA-binding modules to specific topologies, hence selecting specific RNA targets. NNN, MM, XXXX and YY represent four different RNA sequence motifs.