Antimicrobial peptides， widely distributed in nature， are characteristics of broad antimicrobial spectrum， strong and selective killing ability and fast speed of action. They have potential application prospects in the fields of clinical study， pharmaceuticals industry， livestock breeding， aquaculture and food industries. However， antimicrobial peptides have two drawbacks hampering their applications. First， the antimicrobial activity is relatively weak compared with antibiotics； second， the hemolytic activity and stability are difficult to be regulated. In order to obtain efficient， stable and safe antimicrobial peptides， structural modification of antimicrobial peptides is necessary. In this paper， the relationship between the structure and function of antimicrobial peptides was briefly introduced， and the regulatory factors influencing the activity of antimicrobial peptides， such as the positive charge， hydrophobicity， amphipathy， helicity and special amino acids were mainly elaborated， which provides effective ideas for targeted designing of natural antibacterial peptides.