As the soil environment is increasingly deteriorating, the potential use of ACC deaminase in improving plant tolerance and bioremediation has received significant attention in recent years. Our aim is to objectively analyze the current development of ACC deaminase studies worldwide, thus to promote the development of related research work and their utilization in bioremediation of contaminated soils in China. Based on Web of science database, the countries, institutions, authors, research fields, journals and key words of ACC deaminase literatures published during 1991?2016 are quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The ACC deaminase publications have witnessed a continued increase in recent years all over the world. India, Canada and Pakistan are in a leading position in the ACC deaminase research field. Both of the number and influence of the ACC deaminase publications of Canada rank the first. The ACC deaminase study in Canada has focused and strong research strength. The ACC deaminase research in China initialized late. Although the number of published paper of China ranks the fourth place worldwide, the influence is low. The worldwide research area of ACC deaminase mainly focused on agricultural production and environmental remediation. The research area in China mainly concentrated on microbial ecology, plant-microbe interaction and phytoremediation, which are worth focusing and tracking in the future. The research strength of ACC deaminase in Canada ranks the first all over the world. This research field in China started late, but has been developing rapidly during the recent five years. The hot topics of attention are also unique and forward-looking. Nevertheless, more efforts are still needed to publish high level papers, at the same time strengthening the cooperation with high level research institutes, thus to drive the overall improvement of the research strength of ACC deaminase in China.