One of the bottlenecks for wheat improvement is the narrowing of wheat genetic basis. Ethyl methyl sulfonate (EMS) is an efficient and stable alkylation mutagens, which can induce a series of allele mutations with high density, and make breakthroughs in creating of new varieties, new germplasm, genetic materials and solving some special problems in breeding. Based on the principles and characteristics of EMS mutagenesis, this paper briefly describes the method of EMS induction and mutagenesis selection for wheat, and draws an alternative scheme of EMS mutagenesis research, which provides research ideas and reference for wheat researchers. At the same time, the research progress of EMS mutagenesis technology in disease resistance gene cloning, quality trait improvement, leaf greening mechanism research, agronomic trait analysis, and mutant library construction was reported. The problems and countermeasures of EMS mutagenesis in wheat research were analyzed. The development prospect of EMS mutagenesis technology in wheat was prospected. This is of great significance for enriching wheat genetic resources, accelerating breeding processes and studying gene function.