Abstract: Owing to its high evolution rate,lack of recombination and maternal inheritance,mtDNA has been extensively used in unraveling the genealogical history of our species.By means of restriction enzyme analysis of the whole sequence and direct sequencing of the control region,mtDNA has shed light on the provenance of mod ern human,estimation of past population size and date of expansion event,migration and expansion patterns at a continental level,as well as the microdifferen tiaton and demographic history of single population.In this paper,we reviewed the recent advances of mtDNA studies of the world populations,the improvement of the mathematics model,the congruity and discrepancy between mtDNA and nuclear data,the co-evolution between mtDNA and language,ancient DNA,as well as the arguments about the special genetic characteristics of this genetic marker.