Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is a natural phenomenon caused by the disorder interaction between the nuclear genome and the cytoplasmic genome, in which the male organs are abnormal and the female organs can accept the foreign pollen and develop. CMS is a powerful tool for plant hybrid seed production and an important way to utilize plant heterosis. Molecular mechanism of CMS, the basis of its effective use, has been a hot research, but its mechanism research is relatively lagging. In this paper, the formation, characteristics and classification of mitochondrial chimeric genes (orfs), the characteristics of posttranscriptional modifications (RNA editing), their relationship with CMS, and the characteristics and classification of gene translation products and their relationship with CMS were reviewed in order to provide theoretical reference for further analysis of its molecular mechanism.