We have investigated the kinetics of exit from the resting state of BHK cells which had been arrested by isoleucine deprivation, serum starvation, or high temperature in the case of three ts G1 mutants. In addition, we have studied the effect of imposing a secondary deprivation on cells which had been released from one of the above mentioned blocks. The results obtained show that the quiescent states reached by BHK cells following serum or isoleucine deprivation cannot be differentiated on the basis of the exit kinetics from Smith and Martin's probabilistic A-state. Nevertheless, the response of cells to secondary deprivation is different, depending on the nature of the primary arresting condition used, reflecting physiological differences between the different resting states. A model is presented which postulates that cycle transition specific genes require the presence of different proliferative agents for their expression.