Abstract: Heterosis has been widely used in agricultural production, which relies mainly on the cytoplasmic male sterility System. Cytoplasmic male sterility "three-lines” are the basic materials for hybrid breeding. Breeding for the strong restorer line is very complicated and restoring ability can only be identified by testcross with the male sterile line, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, researchers do a lot of studies on the fertility restorer gene. This paper summarizes the restorer gene structural features, mechanism of action, mode of inheritance, gene mapping and cloning research and concluded that with the development of second-generation sequencing technology, it can be used the whole genome re-sequencing and RNA-seq technologies to develop new molecular markers for fine mapping of genes, or directly cloning restorer genes. It will play an important role to marker-assisted breeding and production of new restorer lines by genetic engineering. It also will lay a foundation for exploring the fertility restoration mechanism by studying the inheritance, evolution and characteristics of restorer gene.