A specific decrease in the net de novo synthesis ([1-14C]-glucosamine incorporation) of cell surface trisialoganglioside (GT) occurs in preneoplastic mouse JB6 epidermal cells in response to tumor-promoting phorbol esters, mezerein, or epidermal growth factor, all of which promote neoplastic transformation in JB6 cells, but not in response to the bladder promoter sodium cyclamate, a nonpromoter in JB6 cells. The ganglioside showing elevated synthesis after mezerein or epidermal growth factor exposure is monosialoganglioside 1, whereas disialoganglioside 1b synthesis is elevated after phorbol ester exposure. Primary mouse epidermal cells and putatively initiated epidermal cell lines selected for their resistance to induction of terminal differentiation by high calcium are resistant to promotion of anchorage-independent transformation by 2-week exposure to 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. In both cell types, little or no decrease in GT synthesis occurs in response to short-term 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate exposure, thus extending further our previous observation that this GT response is restricted to promotable cells. A decreased synthesis of GT also occurs consistently in cell lines transformed by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate or N-methyl-N-nitro-nitrosoguanidine as compared with their nontransformed counterparts but not in cell lines transformed by a cloned integrated murine sarcoma provirus containing the oncogenic sequence v-mos. Thus, reduced cell surface GT synthesis may be important both in the induction and in the maintenance of the chemically transformed but not viral oncogene mos-transformed phenotype in mouse epidermal cells.