Pair-rule protein that determines both the size and polarity of even-numbered as well as odd-numbered parasegments during embryogenesis. DNA-binding transcription factor that acts primarily as a transcriptional repressor but can also function as a transcriptional activator, depending on the stage of development and spatial restrictions. May function redundantly with odd and drm in leg joint formation during the larval stages, acting downstream of Notch activation. Has two temporally distinct modes of expression during early embryogenesis; expressed in seven stripes at the blastoderm stage, then during gastrulation the seven primary stripes are supplemented by secondary stripes which appear in alternate segments. This results in the labelling of every segment in the extended germ band. Also expressed in the embryo in distinct regions of the gut, the Garland cells associated with the proventriculus, the pericardial cells, the lymph glands associated with the heart, in a subset of cells in the central nervous system and in select apodemes. Expressed in a segmentally repeated pattern in the leg disk at the distal edge of each presumptive leg segment except in tarsal segments 1 to 4. Belongs to the Odd C2H2-type zinc-finger protein family.