Total Synthesis of (-)-Muscoride A

The recently isolated cyanobacterium metabolite muscoride A was synthesized in 15 steps and in 4.3% overall yield. Novel structural features of this peptide antibiotic include the presence of a threonine-derived bioxazole core and an N-(1,1-dimethyl)allyl ("reverse prenyl") valine residue. In the context of our synthesis, efficient new strategies for the preparation of these segments were developed. The synthesis of two epimers of muscoride A allowed the unambiguous assignment of the relative and absolute configuration of the natural product by NMR and optical rotation analyses.