Sialic acids are sometimes 9-O-acetylated in a developmentally regulated and cell-type-specific manner. Cells naturally expressing the disialoganglioside GD3 often O-acetylate the terminal sialic acid residue, giving 9-O-acetyl-GD3 (9AcGD3), a marker of neural differentiation and malignant transformation. We also reported that Chinese hamster ovary cells transfected with GD3 synthase can spontaneously O-acetylate some of the newly synthesized GD3. It is unclear whether such phenomena result from induction of the 9-Oacetylation machinery and whether induction is caused by the GD3 synthase protein or by the GD3 molecule itself. We now show that exogenously added GD3 rapidly incorporates into the plasma membrane of Chinese hamster ovary cells, and 9AcGD3 is detected after ϳ6 h. The incorporated GD3 and newly synthesized 9AcGD3 have a half-life of ϳ24 h. This phenomenon is also seen in other cell types, such as human diploid fibroblasts. Inhibitors of gene transcription, protein translation, or endoplasmic reticulum-to-Golgi transport each prevent induction of 9-O-acetylation, without affecting GD3 incorporation. Inhibition of the initial clathrin-independent internalization of incorporated GD3 also blocks induction of 9-O-acetylation. Thus, new synthesis of one or more components of the 9-O-acetylation machinery is induced by incorporation and internalization of GD3. Prepriming with structurally related gangliosides fails to accelerate the onset of 9-O-acetylation of subsequently added GD3, indicating a requirement for specific recognition of GD3. To our knowledge, this is the first example wherein a newly expressed or exogenously introduced ganglioside induces de novo synthesis of an enzymatic machinery to modify itself, and the first evidence for a mechanism of induction of sialic acid O-acetylation.Gangliosides are glycosphingolipids containing one or more sialic acids and are commonly found on the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane (1, 2). With ceramide tails embedded in the membrane bilayer and glycans protruding from the surface, gangliosides are often clustered in microdomains and lipid rafts. Besides being major structural components in neural cell membranes, gangliosides have been found to play important roles in cell adhesion, cell recognition, signal transduction, and neural development (3-6). Early studies showed that when gangliosides in micellar form are exogenously added to cell culture media, they are capable of first becoming associated with cell surface proteins (a trypsin-sensitive component) and subsequently becoming inserted into the plasma membrane (becoming trypsin-resistant) (7).The latter molecules are then indistinguishable from their endogenous counterparts that are synthesized in the same cell (8,9). This technique has since been widely employed to study the metabolic fate and functions of gangliosides. Radioactive and fluorescently labeled gangliosides have been used to elegantly trace the internalization route of exogenous gangliosides, demonstrating that such gangliosides are intern...