A recombinant putative dextransucrase (DexT) was produced from Leuconostoc citreum KM20 as a 160 kDa protein, but its productivity was very low (264 U/l). For optimization, we examined enzyme activity in 7 Escherichia coli strains with inducer molecules such as lactose or IPTG. E. coli BL21-CodonPlus(DE3)-RIL exhibited the highest enzyme activity with lactose. Finally, DexT activity was remarkably increased by 12-fold under the optimized culture conditions of a cell density to start induction ($OD_{600}$) of 0.95, a lactose concentration of 7.5 mM, and an induction temperature of $17^{circ}C$. These results may effectively apply to the heterologous expression of other large DexT genes.