“…Although the unsaturated side chains of the meliponamycins are less complex than other natural products of the same class, the stereoselective construction of the tetrahydropyran ring is still far from trivial. − It took several attempts until an activated dihydropyran derivative A , suitable for coupling, could be obtained via a Julia–Lythgoe-type addition of deprotonated sulfone C onto chiral aldehyde B followed by oxidation, desulfonation, deprotection (PMB cleavage), and water elimination (Scheme A). The stereogenic centers of the starting materials B and C were introduced via Sharpless dihydroxylation and Sharpless epoxidation/epoxide opening, respectively .…”