When an 18-kDa cell surface sialoglycopeptide (SGP), isolated from intact bovine cerebral cortex cells, was incubated with exponentially growing Swiss 3T3 cells, cell proliferation was efficiently arrested. The inhibition was totally reversible since after removal of the SGP the arrested cells resumed their progress in the cell cycle in a synchronized manner for at least two divisions. Readdition of the GSP 4 h after reversal of the inhibition did not, however, affect the commitment of the cells to advance through metaphase, although progress through the cell cycle was once again inhibited after the cells reentered the G1 phase. The efficient nature of the SGP-mediated cell cycle arrest in G1 provided us with a basis to examine potential changes in the expression of several competence genes, and genes associated with mid and late G1, that have been implicated in cell cycle progression. Upon serum stimulation of quiescent Swiss 3T3 cells, the induction of c-myc and c-fos expression was not influenced by the SGP at concentrations highly inhibitory to cell cycling. Expression of JE was induced by serum, and the presence of the SGP had little effect on the expression of this growth-related gene. KC expression was not appreciably stimulated by serum although, surprisingly, the addition of the SGP resulted in a significant increase in expression. In addition, we learned that the SGP did not alter expression of ornithine decarboxylase, c-ras, or thymidine kinase, which are induced later than the genes associated with the initial stages of competence.