【Objective】As a kind of thermophilic and chilling-sensitive plants, low temperatures severely affect the growth, development, geographical distribution, and yield of Jatropha curcas L. Previous studies have found that chill-hardening at 12°C can significantly enhance the chilling resistance of J. curcas. The Early Light-Inducible Protein (ELIP) gene in J. curcas is a highly responsive gene to low temperatures. To explore the role of JcELIP in response to low temperatures in J. curcas, to comprehensively understand the structure, regulatory mechanisms, evolutionary relationships of JcELIP, and its interaction with miRNAs, and to provide an important candidate gene resource for subsequent molecular breeding of cold resistance in J. curcas. 【Methods】 This study cloned the JcELIP gene from J. curcas by RT-PCR and conducted a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis. The expression changes of the JcELIP gene in the roots, stems, and leaves, as well as during the chill-hardening at 12°C, were analyzed by RT-qPCR. The miRNAs interacting with JcELIP were identified, and a co-expression analysis was conducted during the chill-hardening at 12°C. 【Results】 The results showed that the complete open reading frame (ORF) of the JcELIP is 585 bp, encoding 194 amino acids. The size of the protein is 2.04 kD with a theoretical isoelectric point of 9.59. It is a stable hydrophobic alkaline protein, with 3 hydrophobic transmembrane helices. The tertiary structure mainly consists of α-helices and irregular coils and possesses chlorophyll a/b binding sites. Cis-acting element prediction shows that JcELIP has hormone response elements such as abscisic acid. Evolutionary analysis showed that the JcELIP from J. curcas has the highest homology with MeELIP from Manihot esculenta. RT-qPCR analysis revealed that under normal growth conditions, there is no significant difference in the expression of JcELIP in the roots, stems, and leaves of J. curcas; During the chill-hardening at 12°C, the expression of JcELIP in the leaves quickly up-regulated, reaching 64.8 times of the control at 48 h, indicating that JcELIP is involved in the response and adaptation of J. curcas to cold stress. Based on the degradome data of J. curcas, eight miRNAs, including miR390-x, miR6476-x, and novel-m0090-3p, were identified as having regulatory effects on the expression of JcELIP. Co-expression analysis showed that the expression of JcELIP was significantly negatively regulated by miR390-x and novel-m0090-3p during the chill-hardening at 12°C.