FAD synthetase (FADS) (EC 2.7.7.2) is a key enzyme in the metabolic pathway that converts riboflavin into the redox cofactor FAD. The human isoform 2 of FADS (hFADS2), which is the product of FLAD1 gene, was over-expressed in Escherichia coli as a T7-tagged protein and identified by MALDI-TOF MS analysis. Its molecular mass, calculated by SDS-PAGE, was approx. 55 kDa. The expressed protein accounted for more than 40% of the total protein extracted from the cell culture; 10% of it was recovered in a soluble and nearly pure form by Triton X-100 treatment of the insoluble cell fraction. hFADS2 possesses FADS activity and has a strict requirement for MgCl2, as demonstrated in a spectrophoto metric assay. The purified recombinant isoform 2 showed a kcat of 3.6 x 10(-3) s(-1) and exhibited a K-M value for FMN of about 0.4 mu M. The expression of the hFADS2 isoform opens new perspectives in the structural studies of this enzyme and in the design of antibiotics based on the functional differences between the bacterial and the human enzymes. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.