Abstract: Plant embryogenesis is a tightly regulated developmental process, consisting of zygote activation, cell division and differentiation, polarity establishment, pattern formation, organogenesis, storage product accumulation, and eventually the formation of a mature embryo. Research in the last twenty years has identified many genes that are involved in different stages of the embryo development, which provides important information underlying plant embryogenesis. This review focuses on the progresses made in this area with emphasis on early embryogenesis. At the end, we give a brief outline about the unsolved problems and the prospective for future studies.