The reactions of thioamides with ortho-nitrosubstituted iodonium ylides proceededu nder mild conditions to give enaminones or thiazoles, depending on the iodonium ylide used. Thisp rotocol allowed the use of protic solvents, includinga queous solutions, and therefore coupling reactions with complex molecules such as peptides or steroids were possible. Am ilda nd efficient methodf or thes ynthesis of various iodonium ylides was established. DFT calculations suggested that the halogen bondingb etween at hioamidea nd iodonium ylide was important in this chemoselective coupling reaction. The potential use of enaminones conjugated with pharmaceuticals as prodrugs was also demonstrated.Thioamides have attracted much attention because they are isosteres of amides, butw ith higherl ipophilicities and stabilities. Many studies of peptides and proteins with thioamide moieties have been conducted. [1] An increasing number of methods for the introduction of thioamides at desiredp ositions of peptides are being developed. [2] In addition,t hioamides have high nucleophilicities and their selectivet ransformations have recently been studied. [3] In particular,t he reactions of thioamide groups, whicha re rarely found in biomolecules, have potential applicationsi nc hemoselective bioconjugation,w hich is one of the most important tools for drug discoverya nd in chemical biology. [4,5] However,o nly af ew examplesofs uch reactions have been reported. These reports include transition-metal-catalyzed coupling reactions with carbene equivalents. [5] Use of diazomalonates as carbene precursors gave enaminones (Scheme 1A,E qn 1), [5d-f] whereast hiazoles were obtained when a-diazo ketoesters were used as the carbene precursors( Scheme 1A,E qn 2). [5b,c] Both products were supposedly obtained through CÀSb ond formation. Althoughe naminones [6] and thiazoles [7] are both attractive pharmacophores with specificp roperties, these reactions generally requireh igh temperatures because of the formation of inert complexes through thioamide coordination to the metal catalyst. It is therefore difficult to apply these reactions to heatlabile molecules such as proteins. Undesired OÀHi nsertion [8] of metalc arbenoids into polar solvents such as alcohols also prevents thioamideu se with complex molecules, whicha re difficult to dissolve in non-polar solvents.Herein, we report ah ighly chemoselective couplingr eaction of varioust hioamides with av ariety of carbene equivalents in ap rotic solventu nder mild conditions. Iodonium ylides (Scheme 1A,E qns 3a nd 4) were selected as carbene equivalents [9] because hypervalenti odine compounds, including iodonium ylides, have recently been reported to have s-holes, [10] and they are expectedt of orm halogenb onds (XB) [11,12] selectively with soft Lewis bases [13] such as thioamides, even in the presence of ap olar functional group such as an alcohol. However,t he use of iodonium ylides as electrophiles (Scheme 1A, Eqn 4) has been less studied [14,15] than metal carbenoid precur-Scheme1.Summary of t...