Stereocontrolled Synthesis as an Enabling Tool for the Configurational Assignment of Marine Polyketide Natural Products

Marine polyketide natural products represent a fertile area of chemical space for the continual discovery of promising drug candidates. Advancements in spectroscopic and computational techniques have allowed for the increasingly facile structural and stereochemical determination of these biologically active molecules. However, their inherent architectural complexity often precludes a complete assignment even by the most discerning isolation chemists. This Minireview highlights how carefully conceived synthetic plans, employing highly stereocontrolled reactions, have enabled the configurational assignment of several polyketide natural products.