Abstract: The seeds of plants, especially the oil plants and corn, are related very closely to human life and, therefore, are becoming important target material for plant genetic engineering. Whether the exogenous gene of the conversion can be expressed correctly, efficiently and as desired in the plant recipient is of current concern. The promoter promoting the exogenous gene’stranscription in the plant recipient is the essential condition that the exogenous gene can express. The seed-specific promoter commonly under investigation today belongs to promoter II, which can promote the exogenous genes to express specifically in the seed, improve the plant metabolism path as desired, and raise the nourishment material content in the seed. The structure of the seed-specific promoter matches the characteristics of the promoter II, having a basal promoter, initiator and upstream element. One of the characteristics discriminating from the other type of promoters is having some specific elements in the upstream relative to the specific control of the seed-specific gene expression. The structural features and application of the seed-specific promoters are briefly introduced. The study of the structure and function of these promoters will help not only to comprehend the development of seeds and the mechanisms of gene expression and organic substance accumulation but also search for some promoter elements useful for plant genetic engineering.