The ectoderm-neural cortex-1 (ENC-1) protein is an early and highly specific marker of neural induction in vertebrates. It is a kelch family related protein that functions as an actin-binding protein and has been suggested to be involved in the organization of the actin cytoskeleton during neural fate specification and development of the nervous system. ENC-1 has also been shown to be required for adipocyte differentiation when cytoskeletal reorganization and cell shape change from fibroblastic preadipocytes to spherical adipocytes occur.