Heterokaryon incompatibility is a widespread phenomenon among fungi,controlled by specific loci termed het (for heterokaryon incompatibility).This review focuses on recent developments in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of nonself recognition and the relationship between the death progresses of heterokaryon incompatibility and associated proteins in fungi.The deep research of heterokaryon incompatibility mechanism will hopefully reveal underlying principles of the evolution of nonself recognition systems and will find some effective method for settling the instability of protoplast fusant of fungi.