Abstract: Soil nitrogen cycling is an important part of biogeochemical cycling. Not only does it influence soil productivity and durative development, but also influences global environmental changes. Terrestrial microorganisms play a vital role in soil nitrogen cycling. They participate in important ecological processes such as nitrogen fixation, ammonification, nitrification and denitrification. With the development of molecular biological technology in recent decades, it is possible to study microbial functional community composition, structure and abundance in relation to soil nitrogen cycling from the point of functional gene. In this paper, advances in functional gene diversity in relation to soil nitrogen cycling are reviewed and future areas of improvement identified.