The rate at which P19 embryonal carcinoma cells in monolayer culture become anchorage dependent during differentiation induced by retinoic acid (RA) was investigated. In both nonsynchronized cultures and cultures synchronized by mitotic selection, the ability to grow in semisolid medium, characteristic of the malignant stem cell, decreased after a lag period of about 12 hr in the continuous presence of RA, prior to an increase in cell generation time. However, striking differences between synchronized and nonsynchronized cultures were observed in their commitment to differentiation following RA removal. After only 2 hr of exposure to RA, synchronized cells continued a program of differentiation in which they became anchorage dependent, while at least 24 hr of exposure was required for exponentially growing cells to become similarly committed. Induction of anchorage dependence by RA was also strikingly cell cycle dependent; 2 or 4 hr of exposure of synchronized cells to RA in G1 phase, when the intrinsic capacity for soft agar growth is low, was sufficient to commit cells to anchorage dependence, but a similar exposure in S phase was not. Together, these results suggested that interactions between cells in different cell cycle phases in asynchronous cultures influenced commitment since exposure to RA for more than one cycle (13 hr) was required for all cells to become anchorage dependent. Increased plasminogen activator secretion and epidermal growth factor binding, markers of certain differentiated cell types, increased only 3 and 5 days after RA addition, respectively, and were not induced by pulsed exposure to RA of less than 24 hr, even in synchronized cells.