Predicted to enable oxygen binding activity. Acts upstream of or within several processes, including brown fat cell differentiation; enucleate erythrocyte differentiation; and response to hypoxia. Is expressed in brown fat; heart; skeletal muscle; and somite. Human ortholog(s) of this gene implicated in acute kidney failure. Orthologous to human MB (myoglobin). [provided by Alliance of Genome Resources, Apr 2022]