Measuring the Local Velocity along Transition Paths during the Folding of Single Biological Molecules

Transition paths are the most interesting part of folding reactions but remain little studied. We measured the local velocity along transition paths in DNA hairpin folding using optical tweezers. The velocity distribution agreed well with diffusive theories, yielding the diffusion coefficient. We used the average velocity to calculate the transmission factor in transition-state theory (TST), finding observed rates that were similar to 10(5)-fold slower than predicted by TST. This work quantifies the importance of barrier recrossing events and highlights the effectiveness of the diffusive model of folding.