Marinomycins A-C (
1-
3), and their monomeric analogues monomarinomycin A (
m-1) and
iso-monomarinomycin A (
m-2), were synthesized by a convergent strategy from key building blocksketophosphonate
5, aldehyde
6, and dienyl bromide carboxylic acid
7. The first attempt to constructmarinomycin A [
1, convertible to marinomycins B (
2) and C (
3) by light] by direct Suzuki-type dimerization/cyclization of boronic acid dienyl bromide
4 led to premature ring closure to afford, after global desilylation,monomarinomycin A (
m-
1) and
iso-monomarinomycin A (
m-
2) in good yield and only small amounts (
2%)of the desired product. A subsequent stepwise approach based on Suzuki-type couplings improvedconsiderably the overall yield of marinomycin A (
1), and hence of marinomycins B (
2) and C (
3). Alternativedirect dimerization approaches based on the Stille and Heck coupling reactions also led to monomarinomycins A (
m-
1 and
m-
2), but failed to deliver useful amounts of marinomycin A (
1).