Abstract: MITE was first discovered in exon 11 of wx-B2 gene in the genome of Maize and be sorted to a novel non-autonomous DNA transposable elements which constitute a short DNA fragment (usually <600bp) with TIR and TSD. Since the TIRs complementing with each other, it tend to form a stem-loop in the secondary structure of MTEs. In the preliminary research stage, two super-families were mainly classified based on TSD sequences: Tourist-like (3-bp, TAA) and Stowaway-like (2-bp, TA). With explosion of genomic sequence inforamtion and development of analysis tools, later studies also find hAT-like (8bp TSD) and Mutator-like (9bp TSD) superfamilies. Subsequent researches reveal MITEs prevalence in almost all organism genomes, animals, plants and bacteria, ect. MITEs exist in genome with large amount of families and high copy numbers, and they become an important constituent of genomes.They distributed in genome widely, but not randomly, most copies prior to distribute in euchromatin regions and significant gene associated. Despite the short length limited proteins coding capacity of MITEs, part of their sequence can be transcript accompany with the neighboring genes. The novel transcripts deriving from MITEs provide sourse for new gene generation or serve as an alternative exon. Moreover, MITEs are the main contributor for siRNAs in plants, indicating the epigenetic regulation mechamism of MITEs induced gene expression. MITEs originate from internal deletion of autonomous transposable element, their activity and amplification induced by specific recognition and binding to the TIR region of transposase. Different profiles of MITEs insertion provide genetic diversity for natural selection and domestication. Recent results demonstrate that MITEs associated important agricultural traits through regulating the key genes expression about those traits. This paper mainly review progresses on the function and evolution of MITEs in recent years and propound perspective in crop genetic improvement.