Enzymes that catalyze the two successive stages of Golgi-associated processing of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides distributed differently when membranes from Chinese hamster ovary cells were centrifuged in a sucrose density gradient. A mannosidase that removes only outer, a-1,2-linked mannose residues from the precursor oligosaccharides of the vesicular stomatitis viral G protein (to yield a "trimmed" oligosaccharide core) was separated from enzymes (galactosyl-and sialyltransferases) that act in the later, terminal stage ofglycosylation. Freshly acylated G protein with newly trimmed oligosaccharides banded in the distribution of early-acting membranes, defined by the mannosidase, whereas G protein pulse-labeled with [3H]galactose distributed in the profile of the late-acting membranes. G protein present in the early-acting membranes in crude fractions could be terminally glycosylated by incubation with exogenous Golgi membranes in vitro; G protein lost its ability to be processed in vitro as it appeared to enter the late-acting membranes in vivo. These experiments reveal the existence of two distinct compartments through which intracellularly transported proteins such as G pass in sequence as Golgi-associated processes are carried out. It is likely that these compartments consist of cisternae on the cis and trans sides of the Golgi stack. The stack of cisternae composing the Golgi apparatus is markedly asymmetric (1-7), its cis [or entry (8, 9)] and trans [or exit (9, 10)] faces differing in morphological and histochemical properties. This cis-trans polarity could signify a fundamental division of the stack into functionally distinct compartments between which proteins can be transported vectorially. Alternatively, this overall asymmetry could reflect a continuous gradient ofcomposition, the result ofa sorting process operating within a stack composed of multiple copies of the same kind of compartment.We recently reported (11) a dramatic change in the behavior in a cell-free assay system (12, 13) of a plasma membrane-type glycoprotein [the G protein encoded by vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)] that occurred as a result of passage through the Golgi. Specifically, the assay distinguished two intracellular pools through which G protein passed in rapid succession: an earlier "transferable" pool that can be donated by membranes from infected cells to exogenous Golgi for oligosaccharide processing in vitro and a later "nontransferable" pool that cannot. The transferable pool appeared to reside in Golgi membranes (11). If the other pool also resided in Golgi membranes, but in a different region, then the change in properties of G protein (transferable-versus nontransferable) in going from one region ofthe Golgi to the other would signify a compartment boundary in between.Asparagine-linked oligosaccharides (such as those ofthe VSV G protein) are processed in two major stages (14-16). First, the precursor oligosaccharide is "trimmed" by the removal of four a-1,2-linked mannose units. Later, terminal glycosyl...