Sphere-like MnS hierarchical microstructures were successfully synthesized by a simple hydrothermal approach, which are composed of the size tunable and self-assembled nanoparticles. These hierarchical microspheres are gamma-MnS phase, which is confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) results, and the stoichiometry of MnS microspheres is checked by XPS measurement. Morphological studies performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) method show that the as-prepared gamma-MnS samples are hierarchical microspheres. The size and morphology of composed nanoparticles can be turned by the concentration of L-Cystein molecules. Here, L-Cystein not only plays a role of sulfur source but also capping agent. Furthermore, a rational mechanism about the formation and evolution of the products is proposed. The present work shows that the origin of the observed difference of magnetic properties is due to the morphology difference of MnS crystals. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.