Nitrate is the major forms of nitrogen that plants absorb from the soil, and its uptake and utilization is a highly coordinated and complex process. For the sake of survive in various environmental conditions, plants have evolved suitable nitrate uptake and utilization mechanisms to adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions. There are various types of nitrate receptors in plant roots, which can sense different concentrations of external nitrate. The low- or high-affinity nitrate uptake system was activated to absorb nitrate from the environment according to the levels of external nitrate. Once nitrate is taken up into root cells, most of it is transported to shoots for assimilation, and synthesizes macromolecular substances to optimize plant growth. When the nitrate supply is too much for use immediately, the plant can store the excess nitrate into vacuoles and mediate it efflux from vacuoles to the cytosol for assimilation when needed. During plant growth and development, nitrate in the old and mature leaves can be redistributed into developing tissues to promote their growth. Many genes related to nitrate absorption, transportation, storage, assimilation and signaling regulation are activated orderly and work coordinately to absorb and utilize nitrate efficiently. This review summarizes the NRT1 and NRT2 nitrate uptake-related genes and their functions, as well as related transcription factors involved in primary nitrate response and small signal peptides in nitrate signaling transduction and exchange among different tissues. In order to further understand the mechanisms of plant uptake and utilize nitrate, and therefore provides new ideas in increasing nitrogen-use efficiency of crop by breeding and cultivation techniques.