Enzymatic selective dehydration and skeleton rearrangement of paclitaxel precursors

[formula: see text] Enzymatic dehydration reactions to remove selectively the chemically least reactive 13-hydroxyl group of 10-deacetylbaccatin III and its derivatives 2a-c are described. The elimination of the 13-OH takes place with skeleton rearrangement, allowing us to synthesize some interesting diterpenoids in good yields.