Shapes of dominant transition paths from single-molecule force spectroscopy

Recent single molecule measurements of biomolecular folding achieved the time resolution sufficient for observation of individual transition paths. This note discusses several ways in which transition path ensembles can be statistically analyzed to extract a single, typical transition path. Analytical approximations derived here for such a transition path further allow one to estimate dynamical parameters (such as the intramolecular diffusion coefficient) directly from the transition path shapes. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.