Abstract: The development of biotechnology has brought new opportunities for development of crop production of sweet potato ( lpomoea batatas Lam. ). The application of the techniques of large-scale cell culture, somatic cell fusion and gene transformation will greatly change the traditional mode of production and breeding of sweet potato. The current advances in somatic embryogenesis, protoplast culture and gene engineering of sweet potato are reviewed in detail. The potential applications of biotechnology in sweet potato and some problems are discussed.