Transgenic construct used to study the mechanisms regulating the epigenetic state of a Polycomb group response element (PRE). Consists of: an FRT cassette that contains a 3.6kb Fab-7 HindIII fragment, a loxP cassette containing the hb promoter (oriented to direct expression through the Fab-7 sequence), a lacZ reporter and a w+* marker. The Fab-7 fragment is oriented such that transcription from the hb promoter will produce sense Fab-7 RNA with respect to the transcription of the endogenous target gene of Fab-7, Abd-B.