Abstract: Compared with other lipid biomarkers, glycerol diether membrane lipids generally bear more specific implications for provenance and environment. Up to date, comprehensive reviews on this topic are rare in both domestic and international literatures. In this paper, we made a brief review on the analytical methods of glycerol diethers, the composition characteristics of archaeal diethers and bacterial diethers, with emphasis on Archaea (e.g., methanogens, methanotrophs, halophiles) and bacteria (e.g., sulfate-reducing bacteria, Aquificales, and some thermophiles).Special attention is paid to the application of glycerol diether membrane lipids and possible biogeochemical processes to the study of extreme environment, such as cold seep, hot spring and hydrothermal systems.The impacts of environmental parameters on the distribution of glycerol diether membrane lipids are briefly introduced and future application of diethers and other lipid biomarkers are discussed.