The protein folding transition state:: what are φ-values really telling us?

Protein engineering-based studies of the folding transition state have accelerated significantly in the last decade, and more than a half dozen proteins have been subjected to extensive phi-value analysis. A general picture is emerging from these studies of a transition state in which the large majority of experimentally characterized side chains participate in relatively homogeneous and energetically weak interactions playing only a relatively small role in defining relative folding rates.