During chick embryonic development carbonic anhydrase (CA) expression of erythrocytes is kept at a very low level until the last week of incubation (i.e., up to day 14). We have previously obtained evidence that hypoxia is the physiological stimulus for rapid onset of CA synthesis before hatching. Looking for putative signals we have carried out in vitro incubations of embryonic erythrocytes, screening a large number of hormones and second messengers, which were all ineffective, with the exception of the A1 agonist N6-phenylisopropyladenosine (adenosine had no effect). However, incubation with embryonic plasma (10%) from embryos greater than 6 days caused a 10-fold increase of the CA activity during 24 h. This increase was not observed when the incubation was carried out with the addition of actinomycin D, cycloheximide, aluminum fluoride, pertussis toxin, or heat-inactivated plasma. Mammalian plasma had no effect on CA activity. Filtration experiments show that the molecular mass of the factor is less than 2,000 Da. We conclude that embryonic plasma contains a heat-labile factor which stimulates CA synthesis via activation of transcription and whose receptor is coupled to a pertussis toxin-sensitive G protein. In vivo the action of the plasma factor is suppressed as long as blood Po2 is high, suggesting the presence of an inhibitor molecule whose synthesis is controlled by the Po2.