Component of a regulatory network controlling visceral mesoderm development and midgut morphogenesis. Transcriptional regulator involved in the activation of a large number of genes in the visceral mesoderm including betaTub60D, dpp and Hand. Binds to and regulates a number of enhancers driving expression in the visceral mesoderm in a temporally and spatially restricted manner. Also to binds to enhancers cooperatively with activators, such as bap or HLH54F, to coregulate expression of shared target genes in the visceral mesoderm. Binds to the Ndg enhancer and drives expression of Ndg in the late visceral musculature. May be involved in the transcriptional regulation of wupA in the visceral mesoderm. Plays an indirect role in the later stages of salivary gland positioning. Binds to DNA. In embryo, expressed in all types of visceral muscles and their progenitors (at protein level). In late stage 10 embryo, expressed in the caudal visceral mesoderm and trunk and hindgut visceral mesoderm progenitors. First detected at E10, when it is expressed in progenitors of all three types of visceral musculature including in primordia of the circular midgut muscles, in foregut and hindgut visceral mesoderm primordia and in the caudal visceral mesoderm. At E10-E11, it is detected in nuclei of cells of the presumptive visceral mesoderm. At E12, expression persists in trunk and hindgut visceral mesoderm. By E14, expressed in both circular and longitudinal precursors of midgut muscles, and by E16, expressed in foregut, midgut and hindgut visceral muscles (at protein level). First detected at the embryonic syncytial blastoderm stage.