The treatment for bone defect in clinic varies from amputation, autogenous bone graft, and allograft. Up to now, the biological activity material, bone tissue engineering, and gene engineering treatment are still not able to completely repair the bone defect. It has been a hot spot in medical field. One of the reasons is the limitation of technology, such as the mastery of operation time and method and the manufacture of bioactivc materials. On the other hand, the local reactions of bone defect are complicated, such as serous bone marrow damage, poor blood supply, the hardening reaction in the cutting ends, and more complications after conventional treatment, including immune rejection, bad osteogenesis, disunion of bone fractures, and long-term pain caused by nerve injury. These reasons restrict the research of bone defect to some degree. Only based on the mechanism of bone repairing and growth, combining multiple methods, filling disadvantages from each other, and finding breakthroughs, we can improve the treatment of bone defect, shorten the treatment time, and improve patient' s quality of life. This paper briefly describes the advantages and disadvantages of autograft and allograft in the treatment of bone defect and emphasizes the research hotspots of bone tissue engineering and gene engineering in recent years, including the up-grading of biological materials, the increased quantity of target cells, and the research progress in growth factors and gene carriers. This papwer also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these two methods in biological engineering to repair bone defect, illustrates the complement when they are applicated together, and finally puts forward the new ideas and new problems of the direction of bone defect research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]