A. Representative Experimental Procedures 1 Preparation of r e l-(2S,4R,5S)-4-Ethenyl-4,5-dimethyl-2-isopropyl-1,3-dioxolane (6a).A solution of a 6:1 mixture of anti-and syn-3-methyl-4-penten-2,3-diols 2 (820 mg, 7.10 mmol), isobutyraldehyde (2.5 g, 35 mmol), MgSO 4 (15 g), CH 2 Cl 2 (140 mL), and p-TSOH (130 mg, 0.68 mmol) was stirred at rt for 4 h before being poured into saturated aqueous NH 4 Cl (50 mL). The resulting layers were separated and the aqueous layer was extracted with CH 2 Cl 2 (2 × 100 mL). The combined organic layers were dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and concentrated. The residue was purified by silica gel chromatography (20:1 hexanes-EtOAc) to give a 6:1 mixture of acetals 6a and 6s (900 mg, 74%) as a colorless oil. The major stereoisomer 6a was separated by preparative MPLC (silica gel, 100:1 hexanes-EtOAc): 1 H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl 3 ) δ 5.75 (dd, J = 10.7, 11.1 Hz, 1H), 5.23 (dd, J = 15.9, 1.6 Hz, 1H), 5.13 (dd, J = 9.1, 1.6 Hz, 1H), 4.70 5, 114.2, 106.3, 81.5, 81.3, 32.1, 22.5, 17.2, 17.1, 15.4; IR (film) 3015, 2977 IR (film) 3015, , 2933 IR (film) 3015, , 2874 IR (film) 3015, , 1473 IR (film) 3015, , 1412 IR (film) 3015, , 1384 IR (film) 3015, , 1108 IR (film) 3015, , 1006 Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 5354-65.