Natural product synthesis and development of catalysts and methods benefit from a critical relationship. [1] A new process provides access to alternative, and often more efficient, routes-it renders a previously untenable scheme feasible. Total synthesis, an important testing ground for a new catalyst and the transformation that it promotes, is particularly valuable when it necessitates the discovery of a method that might otherwise remain unknown. Herein, we report an enantioselective synthesis of the unusual siphonariid metabolite baconipyrone C.[2] The total synthesis demonstrates the utility of recently developed N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes (Scheme 1); it provides the first application of Rucatalyzed asymmetric olefin metathesis. [3][4] Completion of the synthesis necessitated the development of a new protocol for catalytic asymmetric allylic alkylation (AAA) as well-the first with an alkylaluminum reagent. [5,6] The retrosynthesis for baconipyrone C is presented in Scheme 2. We envisioned that pseudo-C 2 -symmetric diketone I might be prepared via 1,6-diene II; this approach would allow us to investigate whether chiral (NHC)Cu complexes developed for AAA reactions [5,6] provide efficient access to 1,6-diene II via III. Segment IV would be synthesized by reductive cleavage of pyran V, secured by asymmetric ringopening/cross-metathesis (AROM/CM) of VI.[3e] The chiral catalyst-based approach in Scheme 2 thus differs fundamentally from the well-established chiral auxiliary-based diastereoselective aldol strategies [7] employed in the only other recorded total synthesis of this target.[8]The catalytic double AAA proposed for conversion of III to II establishes, in a single operation, the two stereogenic centers in I, but would present a number of challenges as well. One set of complications is inherent to processes that are promoted by a single chiral catalyst and that involve diastereo-and enantioselective formation of proximal stereogenic centers. The initially established center can strongly influence, often in competition with the chiral catalyst, the sense of stereocontrol in the subsequent bond formation. Thus, as illustrated in Scheme 3, addition of the first Me unit to diene III would generate two new stereogenic centers. The first alkylation delivers VII (or the corresponding syn isomer), wherein the central carbon, unlike III or the desired final product II, is a stereogenic center. Selective formation of II requires that the second alkylation occur preferentially with the opposite sense of relative stereochemistry (vs. III!VII); otherwise, meso-VIII AAA would be generated. That is, II can only be obtained selectively if the chiral catalyst-not the stereogenic centers in VII-dictates the course of the second alkylation.The substitution pattern of the olefins in III poses another challenge. This class of olefins represents a difficult and relatively unexplored set of substrates for catalytic AAA, [5] the first examples of which were only recently reported. [9] Existing disclosures do not, how...