Abstract: Protease has a rising proportion in industrial production due to its high catalytic efficiency and low pollution level. Protease has a wide range of sources. Microbial proteases are relatively low in production cost and easy to control. Research at home and abroad is on the rise. The purification degree of microbial source protease is improved, the enzyme activity is regulated to enter the molecular level, and combined with advanced technologies such as genetic engineering, the screening and culture methods of related engineering bacteria are developing at a high speed. Traditional microbial culture techniques are combined with genetic engineering, protein engineering, to further increase the yield of proteases and optimize the properties of proteases. In this paper, the common microorganisms and screening methods for extracting proteases, the purification of microbial proteases, the regulation of enzyme activities and their applications are discussed and the recent research at home and abroad is summarized, and their development prospects are prospected, to provide some theoretical support for the future research of microbial proteases.