Figure 6.

Contour plots of the free energy landscape F(E, Q) for a cage with attractive inner surface. Different degrees of hydrophobicity are displayed in plots a–d, corresponding to ɛ = 0.0, ɛ = 0.4, ɛ = 0.6, and ɛ = 0.8, respectively. The native and the intermediates states are slightly modified for 0.0 < ɛ < 0.4 but for larger values of ɛ the intermediate states disappear and the native structure is deformed. As a consequence, F(E, Q) represents a two-states landscape. The contour lines represent the free energy difference with respect to the native state and are given in Kcal/mol K.