Strong electrostatic attraction drives milk heteroprotein complex coacervation
Coacervates of oppositely charged milk proteins are used in functional food development, mainly to encapsulate bioactives. To uncover the driving forces behind coacervates formation, we study the association of lactoferrin and β−lactoglobulin at amino-acid level detail, using molecular simulations. Our findings show that inter-protein electrostatic interactions dominate and are, surprisingly, equa