Protein domains usually fold without or with only transiently populated intermediates, possibly to avoid misfolding, which could result in amyloidogenic disease. Whether observed intermediates are productive and obligatory species on the folding reaction pathway or dispensable by-products is a matter of debate. Here, we solved the crystal structure of a small protein domain, SAP97 PDZ2 I342W C378A, and determined its folding pathway. The presence of a folding intermediate was demonstrated both by single and double-mixing kinetic experiments using urea-induced (un)folding as well as ligand-induced folding. This protein domain was found to fold via a triangular scheme, where the folding intermediate could be either on-or off-pathway, depending on the experimental conditions. Furthermore, we found that the intermediate was present at equilibrium, which is rarely seen in folding reactions of small protein domains. The folding mechanism observed here illustrates the roughness and plasticity of the protein folding energy landscape, where several routes may be employed to reach the native state. The results also reconcile the folding mechanisms of topological variants within the PDZ domain family.The role and even the presence of intermediates in the folding reactions of protein domains are under constant debate (1, 2). Domains that fold without populated intermediates appear to have been selected for during evolution, possibly to avoid misfolding (3). Yet the polymeric nature of proteins implies their folding energy landscape to be rough (4), and clearly, intermediates do occur, sometimes as high energy species, which can only be indirectly monitored (5-7) but sometimes as low energy species, which can be observed directly (8 -14). One problem with studying these intermediates is that they are only transiently populated and thus difficult to isolate and characterize. A successful strategy to isolate folding intermediates has been to destabilize the native state by mutation, which works if the intermediate state is less destabilized by the modification (9,11,15,16). Further, general mechanisms of folding may be deduced if several members of a protein family are compared, for example regarding the influence of sequence and topology on the folding reaction (17-20). We have used this strategy on the PDZ domain family of proteins (21-24) and demonstrated that the folding reaction of all members investigated so far involves an intermediate, which at least in one case is on-pathway (6), often high energy, but off-pathway and low energy compared with the denatured state for a circularly permutated bacterial PDZ domain (25). Here we describe the folding reaction of SAP97 PDZ2 I342W C378A, referred to as pseudo-wild type PDZ2 (pwPDZ2). A triangular scheme explains the folding of this pwPDZ2. The intermediate in the scheme is of low energy and either on-or off-pathway depending on experimental conditions. The folding reaction of pwPDZ2 thus reflects the plasticity of the energy landscape for protein folding. We also discuss how ...