Abstract: Reduction of methane emission is a research hotspot in the field of climate change. The anaerobic methane oxidation (AOM) process has been neglected as a methane sink, but in fact plays an important role in regulating global methane balance and mitigating greenhouse effect. AOM microorganisms could utilize methane as electron donors to reduce sulfate (SO₄^2-)^, nitrite (NO₂^-), nitrate (NO₃^-) and metal ions (Fe³⁺, Mn⁴⁺, Cr⁶⁺). AOM process is the key for the coupling of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles. We systematically analyzed the progress in research of AOM types, underlying mechanisms, related functional microbial groups (ANME-1, ANME-2, ANME-3, NC10, MBG-D) and key regulatory factors affecting the AOM process. We found that more than 80% of the studies focused on the AOMrelated processes of the most common electron acceptor types (SO₄^2-, NO₃^-, NO₂^-, Fe³⁺, Mn⁴⁺), ignoring the coupling process with potential new electron acceptors (AQDS, HAsO₄^2-, Cr⁶⁺, ClO₄^-, etc.), the corresponding microbial types, and the underlying mechanism. We proposed future direction of AOM research with the aim to provide new ideas for finding out the ecological distribution of methane anaerobic oxidizing bacteria in different ecosystems and mitigating global greenhouse gas emissions.