Although several expression systems are currently available for the production of recombinant proteins, they still have some inherent disadvantages, thereby resulting in the desire to explore a novel expression system for producing recombinant proteins. Dunaliella salina (D. salina) has been exploited as a novel expression system for the field of genetic engineering because of its distinct advantages, including low production cost, fast growth, easy culture, ease of transgenic manipulation, and modified abilities of transcription and translation. Thus far, studies on D. salina host have made great development and significant progress. This paper presents a comprehensive summary of the achievements of D. salina host from the following aspects: the advantages of D. salina cells, transformation methods, cloning of D. salina genes, and expression of exogenous genes into D. salina. Furthermore, the authors identified the current main obstacles and future application prospects for the recombinant proteins produced by D. salina, which could be used as a basis for the future maturation of D. salina expression system.