Sequence-specific transcription factor which is part of a developmental regulatory system that provides cells with specific positional identities on the anterior-posterior axis. Acts on the anterior body structures. Seems to act in the maintenance and/or generation of hindbrain segments. The homeobox domain presumably directs sequence-specific DNA binding. The N-terminal portion of ERA-1-993 may be involved in interactions with one or more other regulatory proteins. Such an interaction could regulate either the DNA-binding activity or the transcriptional regulatory activity of ERA-1-993. The homeoboxless ERA-1-399 protein could act as a competitive inhibitor of the ERA-1-993 protein by competing for interaction with regulatory protein(s) while being unable to bind to DNA.