Antibiotics play a key role in the prevention and treatment of human and animal bacterial infections. The widespread use of antibiotics causes bacteria to be exposed to the environment，humans and livestock at levels below the minimum inhibitory con⁃centration（i.e.，subinhibitory concentration），leading to antibiotic resistance. Bacteria acquire drug resistance mainly through horizon⁃tal gene transfer. At present，both domestic and foreign studies have reported that antibiotics with subinhibitory concentration can affect horizontal gene transfer of bacteria. In this paper，the definition and origin of subinhibitory concentration antibiotics were introduced. This paper expounded the effects of subinhibitory antibiotics on horizontal gene transfer in bacteria，and described the mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer mediated by subinhibitory antibiotics through SOS response，ROS and quorum sensing，which was of great sig⁃nificance for clinical understanding of the transmission of drug resistance genes and active prevention and treatment.