The extracellular production of a hybrid bacterial beta-glucanase using Escherichia coli was studied by using combinations of promoters of varying strength for both a beta-glucanase as the target protein and the Kil protein as the releasing factor. Four strains with different combinations of promoter strengths were cultivated in shake-flasks on four different media to assess the cross-influence of promoter and medium in a general manner. Promoters were taken from natural as well as synthetic sequences known to exhibit either weak or strong promoter strength. By far the highest extracellular glucanase activity (> 200 U ml(-1)) was achieved when a strain harbouring the kil gene under control of a strong synthetic stationary-phase promoter and the glucanase gene under control of a strong synthetic constitutive promoter was cultivated on a complex medium mainly composed of casein peptone, yeast extract, and glycerol.