The total amount of gangliosides per cerebellum of a wild-type mouse increased 126-fold during postnatal development. Although all major gangliosides were synthesized, the relative amount of individual ganglioside species changed during this period. In the developing wild-type cerebellum a transient accumulation of GD3 occurred between birth and postnatal day 20 (P20) with the largest portion (23%) of the total ganglioside content at postnatal day 7 (P7). In the adult cerebellum GD3 was only a minor component (3.2%) of the ganglioside pattern. As demonstrated by immunofluorescence the accumulation of GD3 was predominantly associated with premigratory and early postmigratory granule cells. The ganglioside GD3 was found in two alkali-stable forms in the young cerebellum, whereas the ganglioside species with the higher Rf value (migrating in the same position as the upper GD3 band) in the adult cerebellum was alkali labile. The cerebellum of the neurological mutant staggerer (sg/sg) was characterized by a low amount of GD1a in adult animals, due to the massive death of neurons in the postnatal cerebellar cortex. The neonatal loss of sialic acid residues from cerebellar cell surfaces in wild-type mice and the maintenance of embryonic sialoglycoconjugates in the staggerer cerebellum cannot be explained by the alterations of ganglioside patterns observed during postnatal development.