Putative transcription factor. May function redundantly with odd and sob in leg joint formation during the larval stages, acting downstream of Notch activation. Acts in a hierarchy during foregut and hindgut patterning and morphogenesis, antagonizing lin to relieve the repressive effect on bowl. Involved in cell rearrangement during elongation of the embryonic hindgut. Regulates expression of hindgut patterning genes to establish the small intestine region of the embryonic hindgut. Required in the foregut for spatially localized gene expression and morphogenesis of the proventriculus. Interacts with lin. 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 seven secondary stripes which appear in alternate segments. This results in the labelling of each of the 14 segments in the extended germ band. Also expressed in the anterior gut primordium starting at stage 5 and in the embryonic foregut (including the proventriculus) and hindgut. Strongly 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. In early third instar leg disks, expression starts in a proximal ring corresponding to the presumptive coxa. The number of segmental rings progressively increases to 5 by the end of larval development. The C2H2-type domain 1 is essential for binding to and repressing lin, while the C2H2-type domain 2 contributes to lin binding.