Asymmetric total synthesis of (-)-mycothiazole.

[structure: see text] In this Letter we describe the first total synthesis of mycothiazole, a polyketide thiazole from a marine sponge. Key steps include our CMD oxidation for the conversion of thiazolidine 11 to thiazole 12 and the Nagao acetate aldol reaction of 5 with aldehyde 4 to construct the chiral secondary alcohol. The skipped diene was constructed by the standard Stille coupling, and the conjugated diene was synthesized by lithium(I)- and copper(I)-mediated Stille coupling.