[GRAPHICS]
A novel method for the synthesis of pyrrolidine C-nucleosides has keen deve
loped, The key step of the synthesis is the palladium(0)-mediated coupling
of a disubstituted N-protected 2-pyrroline and 5-iodouracil. C-Nucleoside 1
4 and its N-methyl derivative 15 can easily be convened to the correspondin
g phosphoramidite building blocks for DNA synthesis.