A riboflavin operon(rib operon)derived from Bacillus subtilis 368 was modified on structure and the resulting operons were expressed in various strains of Escherichia coli. The results showed that the optimization of the rib operon and the host strain used for expression are two main factors affecting the riboflavin production. Replacing the promoter l and rfn box of the rib operon with a strong constructive promoter spo l drastically increased the expression of the rib genes. When E. Coli JMl09 was used as the host strain, the highest riboflavin production reached 95.3μg/mL(about eight times higher than that 0f the unmodified rib operon). In addition, when tetracycline(20 μg/mL)was used as the selective pressure, compared with the ampicillin resistant transformants, a higher riboflavin yield Was obtained in tetracycline resistant host strain.