Abstract:Folate are presented in all kinds of foods, but folate deficiency in human body still exist in every country due to the difference of dietary habit and unstability of folate. Folate are the important material that participate in synthesis of nucleic acid and the cell division and differentiation. Folate deficiency lead to the disorders of body functions, thus lead to a serise disease such as cancer. Even though most lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are folate-defective strains, more and more studies indicated that a lot of strains among LAB have the capability to synthesize folate. This review summarized the progress on species of LAB with the capacity of synthesizing folate, their folate synthesis mechanism, and folate gene engineering carried by LAB.