The velvet factor is conserved in many fungal species and is found to have gained different roles depending on the organism's need, expanding the conserved role in developmental programmes PMID:17631397. The velvet factor orthologues can be adapted to the fungal-specific life cycle and may be involved in diverse functions such as sclerotia formation and toxin production, as in Aspergillus parasiticus PMID:15294809, nutrition-dependent sporulation, as in A. fumigatus PMID:16824096, or the microconidia-to-macroconidia ratio and cell wall formation, as in the heterothallic fungus Gibberella moniliformis (Fusarium verticillioides). They may be fungus-specific transcription factors that recognise the specific cis-acting responsive elements present in the promoters of direct target genes PMID:28481894. The velvet domain of VosA is a novel DNA-binding motif that specifically recognises an 11-nucleotide consensus sequence consisting of two motifs in the promoters of key developmental regulatory genes. In VelB the velvet domain contains an insertion of 99 residues of yet unknown function PMID:24391470.

PFAM:PF11754, INTERPRO:IPR021740,DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001750