A review with 116 refs. on syntheses of bacterial oligosaccharides contg. addnl. synthetic challenges. In the first part, syntheses of L-glycero-D-manno-heptopyranosyl-contg. oligosaccharides are reported. Synthesis of the heptose trisaccharide structures from the core region of lipopolysaccharides from Salmonella and Haemophilus bacteria are described together with larger fragments contg. hexoses as well. In the second part, development of reactive b-selective glucuronic acid thioglycoside donors is presented. These donors, promoted by DMTST, are used to prep. disaccharide structures corresponding to the repeating unit of the capsular polysaccharide from Streptococcus pneumoniae type 3 and to parts of the capsular polysaccharide of Cryptococcus neoformans. In the third and last part, stereoselective prepn. of a- and b-D-fructofuranosides using thioglycoside donors are discussed. With participating benzoyl groups and DMTST as promoter, excellent yields of a-linked fructofuranosyl disaccharides are obtained. [on SciFinder (R)]