Abstract: With the continuous development of mining，smelting and electroplating industries，heavy metals pollutions to the environment are increasingly serious. In recent years，microbial remediation arouses the extensive attentions because of its advantages of low cost and no secondary pollution. The main microorganisms used to remove heavy metals include fungi，algae，actinomyces and bacteria；among them，the biosorption and detoxification mechanisms of bacteria are more widely studied. This paper summaries the research advances on biosorption and detoxification mechanisms of heavy metals by bacteria from the aspects of bacterial cell’s structure，i.e.，the extracellular part，the cell surface and intracellular part，which mainly includes extracellular precipitation mechanisms，biosorption mechanisms on cell surface and intracellular detoxification mechanisms. Furthermore，the paper puts forward the feasible direction of future research，and provides theoretical basis and practical references for the microbial remediation of heavy metals pollution.

Key words: heavy metals, bacteria, biosorption mechanisms, detoxification mechanisms