Abstract: In order to scientifically and reasonably inspect and quarantine Potato virus Y (PVY) strains and know the profile of PVY strains infecting potato in China, the currently used PVY strain classification methods were reviewed, and all the reported PVY isolates from potato in China were analyzed. The study pointed out that the four widely used classification methods at present (classification by serotypes, classification based on genome recombination, classification based on potato tuber necrotic ringspot disease, classification based on hypersensitive resistance genes), and the classification method by strain groups suggested by Singh et al, could not fully and well classify the reported PVY strains. It was suggested that the specific sequences in the PVY genomes which encoded the motifs to determine the pathogenic effects on potato were necessarily to be elucidated and used to identify PVY strains. At present, the method by sequencing short, specifically different genome sequences among PVY strains might be most close to the potential pathogenic motif encoding sequence method. The study also pointed out that six PVY strains (PVY^O, PVY^N, PVY^NTN, PVY^N:O, PVY^{N- Wi} and PVY^NW) had successfully infected the potato grown in the fields in China. PVY^N was the predominant one of them. These six PVY strains could be sorted into two strain groups (PVY^O and PVY^N) and PVY^N group was the predominant one. Among the reported PVY isolates, most were non-recombinant strains. But as recombinant strains also accounted for a certain proportion, their development trend deserved more attention.