Skeletal Editing of Alkenes and Alkynes via Single-Carbon-Atom Insertion

Skeletal editing has emerged as a pivotal complement to retrosynthetic analysis strategies. This approach enables simple bulk chemical feedstocks to achieve precise atomic-level modifications—such as insertion, deletion, or swapping—facilitating the rapid assembly of complex, high value-added functional organic molecules. Currently, single-carbon-atom insertion reactions predominantly emphasize the functionalization of (hetero)aromatic systems, leaving the site-specific editing of unsaturated C─C bond frameworks such as alkenes and alkynes, comparatively underexplored. This review provides detailed analysis and summary of recent progress in the skeletal editing of functional alkenes and alkynes derivatives via single-carbon-atom insertion, and outlining the future potential directions of this technology.