These genes encode basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors that have been best studied in their regulation of nervous system development.
[1] Homologues of AS-C in other animals, including humans and other vertebrates, have similar functions.
Genes of the AS-C interact with the Notch pathway in both their proneural functions as well as their specification of gut and muscle cells.
[3] As with most classically described Drosophila genes, achaete is named for its mutant phenotype, which is the lack of sensory hairs (macrochaetae and microchaetae) on the back of the adult fly.
It functions downstream of other genes, including hairy and extramacrochaete, that set up fields of cells that may express achaete.