May act as a morphogenetic regulator of cell adhesion. Participates in the early events that lead to differentiation. Transcribed in developmentally important regions that give rise to skeletal muscle, tendons, cartilage, male gonads, and the ureteric buds of the kidney. Expressed in discrete premyogenic cell populations of the somite, in the condensing prechondrogenic mesenchymal cells of the axial skeleton, in the pretendenous cells of the tail and limbs, the testis cords of the developing male gonad, and in the metanephric kidney. Belongs to the TALE/IRO homeobox family.