This paper describes the enantioselective synthesis of key fragments (12, 18, 24, and 35) for the synthesis of aplysiatoxin (1a), a potent cancer promoter, and their convergent assembly to Kishi's aldehyde (2). Since 2 has already been transformed into 1a in a short step, its synthesis constitutes a formal total synthesis of 1a Synthesis of fragments of aplysiatoxin (1a) and their convergent assembly to the key intermediate, Kishi's aldehyde (2), for the ...