Involved in early neuronal development; required for cell cycle exit and differentiation of primary neurons (By similarity). Cooperates synergistically with pak3 to promote primary neural differentiation within the neural plate (PubMed:24095902). May play a role in promoting megakaryocyte differentiation (By similarity). Maternally expressed. Expressed at the animal half during the blastula stage. Expressed in the central, posterior and anterior neural plate regions, including the eye field at stage 12.5. Expressed in the posterior neural plate at stage 15. Later on, expressed in the developing nervous system. Expressed through the eye vesicle at stage 20. Strongly expressed in differentiating primary neurons in the brain, spinal cord and retina from stages 24 to 31. Not detected in the lens at any developmental stages. Up-regulated by the proneural transcription factors Neurog2, Neurod1 and Ebf3. Morpholino knockdown of the protein causes an accumulation of neuronal progenitor cells resulting in the neural plate expansion. Belongs to the MTURN family.