Abstract: The gateway of somatic embryogenesis has been extensively applied in plants propagation, it is not only an important method for the rapid propagation in a large scale, but also an ideal experimental system for studying the cell totipotency. Great progress has been made with the study of plant somatic embryogenesis in the past few years, but many problems still remain unsolved in this field. Based on the related reports and literature of recent years, the paper summarized the research results of plant somatic embryogenesis, such as enzymes changes, metabolizability of nucleic acid, amino acid and protein, and it also discussed the application prosperity and the existing problems with plant somatic embryogenesis.