The Formal Total Synthesis of Epothilone A

The formal total synthesis of epothilone A is described. The key steps in the synthesis of the northern hemisphere are a Z-selective ten-membered ring-closing metathesis reaction (RCM) and the diastereoselective alkylation at C8. Aldehyde 3 is formed by introduction of the thiazole moiety by a Wittig reaction and subsequent functional group transformation. An efficient route to keto acid 5 is described.