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This study aimed to evaluate the survival and gene expression of Vibrio harveyi under starvation conditions. The microcosms V. harveyi were incubated in sterilized seawater for four weeks at room temperature. Overall, the cell numeration declined rapidly about 103 CFU/ ml during starvation, with a tiny rebound at day twenty-one. Scanning electron microscopy revealed rod-shaped cells became sphere with a rippled cell surface. By polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, nine genes, named lux R, tox R, vhh B, fla A, top A, fur , rpo S, mre B, fts Z were detected in the non-starvedi cells. In the starved, the expression levels of the detected genes declined substantially ranging from 0.005-fold to 0.028-fold compared to the non-starved performed by reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) with 16s rRNA as the internal control. In the recovering cells, the expression levels of the detected genes, except lux R and mre B, were upregulated dramatically compared to the wild, especially top A (23.720-fold), fur (39.400-fold) and tox R (9.837-fold), validating that the expressions of both the metabolism and virulence genes were important for growth and survival of V. harveyi. The results may shed a new light on understanding of stress adaptation in bacteria.