Lignin as the most abundant aromatic compounds, its decomposition is closely related to the carbon cycle. The bio-conversion of lignocellulose to glucose is an important part of second generation biofuel production, but the resistance of lignin to breakdown is a bottleneck in this process, hence there is considerable interest in the microbial breakdown of lignin. The degradation of lignin by fungi has been well studied, but it is still not clear in bacteria. Recently, many researchers focus on the lignin degradation by bacteria, because a wide range of growth conditions and good environment adaptability for bacteria. In addition, the rapidly development of omics technique such as gemome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolomics promoted the study on the bacterial degradation of lignin. This review introduced the recent research about the diversity of bacteria in lignin degradation, the lignin metabolism pathway and involved enzymes.