Phosphate tethers in natural product synthesis.

Recent advances in phosphate tether-mediated natural product synthesis are reviewed. Synthetic approaches toward dolabelide C, (-)-salicylihalimide A, (-)-tetrahydrolipstatin, and (+)-strictifolione are included. In addition, current efforts in method development are briefly reviewed, including a detailed study on the effect of stereochemical complexity on the phosphate-mediated, diastereoselective ring-closing metathesis reaction and recent advances in multi-reaction, one-pot sequential processes mediated by the phosphate tether. Overall, this review seeks to highlight the utility of phosphate triesters to serve as multifunctional tethers with protecting group and latent leaving group characteristics and the ability to orchestrate multiple, orthogonal reaction pathways to allow for the facile synthesis of complex, bioactive small molecules and their analogs.