To elucidate the structure characteristic, regulation of expression and the potential function of JWA——a novel retinoic acid responsible and cytoskeleton associate gene, a rat JWA homologue gene and a 621-bp JWA promoter fragment were cloned and analyzed. Using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), JWA mRNA expression in NIH3T3, K562 and human primary acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) cells have been investigated after treatment with all trans retinoic acid (ATRA), N-4-hydroxyphenyl-retinamide (4HPR), arsenic trioxide (As2O3), Phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (TPA) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The results showed that there is a complete TPA responsive element (TRE) existed in the promoter of JWA at ?437 to ?443 bp; rat JWA homologue gene showed that there are four nucleotides different from human JWA within coding region. After treatment with TPA, an uneven pattern of JWA transcription existed in different cell lines, suggesting that even TPA induces cell differentiation in different cell lines, and it may be referred to different signal pathways. In ATRA pretreated APL cells, all the above chemicals induce cellular differentiation and down regulate JWA transcription in vitro. This suggests that pretreatment of ATRA on APL cells seems a precondition for turning on JWA involved signal pathway.