Transcription of the J6 gene (a member of the serpin family) is induced in murine F9 teratocarcinoma cells 24-48 h after retinoic acid (RA) treatment. Previously, we have identified a region of the J6 5'-flanking region (-1050 to -738) that is involved in regulating transcription of this gene. In this report, we show that a RA-induced nuclear protein in the F9 cell extract recognizes the GAGATAG sequence which is repeated four times in this regulatory region of the J6 gene. The kinetics of RA induction of the GAGATAG-binding protein correlates with that of J6 mRNA, suggesting that the GAGATAG-binding protein may be involved in the transactivation of the J6 gene in RA-treated F9 cells. Competition experiments demonstrate further that the RA- induced GAGATAG-binding protein is related to the transcription factors GATA-1 and GATA-2. Furthermore, insertion of the RA regulatory region of the J6 gene into a thymidine kinase promoter/chloramphenicol acetyltransferase expression vector causes an increase in chloramphenicol acetyltransferase expression by 5-8-fold in human HeLa cells when co-transfected with human GATA-2 or GATA-3 expression vectors. This suggests that the J6 gene is likely to be transactivated by the GATA-2, GATA-3, or related transcription factor, which is activated by retinoic acid during F9 cell differentiation.