Rapid assembly of oligosaccharides: 1,2-diacetal-mediated reactivity tuning in the coupling of glycosyl fluorides

This paper describes the application of 1,2-diacetal protecting groups to control the reactivity tuning of glycosyl fluorides in oligosaccharide coupling reactions. The synthetic potential of this new methodology is demonstrated by the 'one-pot' synthesis of a linear pentasaccharide and the efficient assembly of the core oligosaccharide of the GPI anchor of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.