[a confused chiral girl]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone could please draw how this structure would look like after it's separated into the carbonyl electrophile and enolate nucleophile.

thanks!

[Fry]

2,3-dioxobutane with itself?


http://chemfinder.cambridgesoft.com/ChemIndex/ChemIndex/ChemIndex_action.asp?formgroup=base_form_group&dbname=ChemIndex&dataaction=Get_structure&Table=MolTable&Field=MOL_ID&DisplayType=sizedgif&width=225&height=200&StrucID=3976

[Custos]

As a general rule of thumb to go backwards from an aldol condensation look for the beta-keto alcohol, and push the electrons as shown - the proton falling off, tha alcohol becomes the carbonyl electrophile and the resulting anion is stabilized by an adjacent carbonyl.