Abstract
A diacyl phosphatidylinositol (PI) derivative with an azide linked to its inositol C4-position was effectively synthesized in 19 steps for the longest linear sequence and in a ca. 1% overall yield from 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycerol and D-glucose. This compound was designed as a biosynthetic precursor of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchors. Its azide would enable further modification to introduce other molecular tags by biocompatible click reaction. Therefore, it can be a useful probe for metabolic engineering of cell surface GPI anchors and GPI-anchored proteins.