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The ability of microorganisms resisting to environmental stresses is an essential strategy for enhancing their adaptability and survival in adversity. In order to understand microbial development and use microbial resources, it is necessary to probe the processes and molecular mechanisms underpinning microbial stresses response. Polyphosphate（polyP）plays an important role in the resistance of microorganisms to environmental stresses. polyP acts as a signalling molecule and energy source to increase the adaptation of microorganisms to low nutrient environment if nutrients are in deficiency. To respond to environmental stresses, microorganisms can utilize polyP as a chaperone of protein to decrease the alteration of protein structure by modifying it to maintain its function. Additionally, polyP is metal chelator to increase the resistance of microorganisms to heavy metal stress. Furthermore, microorganisms can balance sharp changes in environmental pH by controlling polyP synthesis while they can regulate energy consumption during acid and alkali stresses. Based on the properties of polyP, transduced genes related to polyP synthesis can increase its content in crops,and thus their resistances to environmental stresses are improved. Microorganisms with polyP synthesis can be used to treat heavy metal-containing wastewater, the removal efficiency of heavy metal ions increases significantly. Additionally, polyP particles synthesized by microbe can be further used as bioactive products. Thus, polyP plays a diverse role in the stress resistance of microorganisms to enhance their tolerance to environmental stress through various molecular pathways. Further understanding the role and mechanism of polyP in microbial resistances to environmental stresses is not only enriching the research on microbial resistance to environmental stress, and also providing technical support for the engineering application of polyphosphate bioactive substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]