Asymmetric Synthesis of Calyculin C. 1. Synthesis of the C(1)-C(25) Fragment.

We report our synthesis of the C(1)-C(25) fragment of serine/threonine phosphatase PP1 and PP2A inhibitor, calyculin C. Synthetic efforts were directed initially toward the synthesis of a spiroketal core fragment (7), which culminated in completion of the bottom half of the natural product. The synthesis of fragment 7 and subsequent elaboration relied on an allylboration strategy for introduction of chirality. The C(1)-C(8) fragment representing the potentially unstable tetraene moiety was introduced as a separate entity.