Marshall and his co-workers used their asymmetric allenylmetal-homoaldol tactic to construct polypropionate frameworks of (+)-discodermolide. The novelty of the Marshall approach is that the three stereotriad subunits are assembled through addition of non-racemic allenylmetal reagents to (S)-3-silyloxy-2-methylpropanal to generate both syn/syn and syn/anti adducts. The central feature for the synthesis of the alkyl iodide fragment was the treatment of aldehyde to allenyltributylstannane in the presence of BF3-etherate to get the syn/syn isomer. Syn/anti methyl-hydroxyl-methyl stereotriads were obtained through the reaction between aldehyde and homochiral allenylzinc reagent.