Reporter expression (along with Clk expression) is detected in a subset of s-LNv neurons, I-LNv neurons, Lnd neurons, and a DN1 neuron, but not in DN2 or DN3 neurons.

nmo reporter is first detected in stage 5 embryos in all cells and overlaps with eve. By stage 6, it is enriched in stripes of cells anterior to the 2nd and 7th ftz stripes. In stage 7, nmo reporter overlaps with prominent odd and weak even eve stripes and the early 14 stripes of en. In stage 11, is strongly expressed in all parasegments and overlaps with the 14 mature en stripes. Elevated expression is still detected anterior to and encompassing the 4th and 14th en stripes. At stage 14 enriched expression is seen in cells flanking the segment boundaries, including the posterior stripe of en-positive cells and more broadly at the anterior boundary.

Zygotic nmo expression is first seen at embryonic stage 5, where it is weakly expressed in all cells and overlaps with both eve and ftz during the refinement of the primary 7-stripe pair-rule pattern. By stage 6, expression is enriched in a stripe of cells anterior to the 2nd and 7th ftz stripe. From stage 7-14 broad nmo expression, encompassing all 14 en stripes is observed. The early stripes of enriched nmo expression anterior to the 4th and 14th en stripe persist until germ band retraction. By stage 14, nmo is also enriched in the narrow stripe of en-expressing cells at the posteior edge of every segment, and more broadly at the anterior boundaries. nmo is excluded from the amnioserosa and is later co-expressed with eve and en in a subset of neural cells.

Reporter expression is observed in motor neurons in the larval ventral nerve cord.

Strong enhancer trap expression is detected near the morphogenetic furrow and weaker expression is detected in photoreceptor precursors posterior to the furrow.