In recent years, metal nanomaterials have been widely used due to their excellent properties, such as interfacial effect, quantum size effect and macroscopic quantum tunneling effect. Biotemplates are often used to synthesize nanomaterials, including DNA, proteins, bacteria, fungi, viruses and so on. The metal nanomaterials, which are synthesized by virus template, compared with other biotemplates, usually have better stability, dispersity and biocompatibility. Moreover, nanomaterials have excellent performances in catalysis, optics, electricity, magnetism, chemistry and superconduction. With nearly 20 years’ development, the technology of nanomaterial synthesis by using virus as template has been gradually matured. Nowadays, research interest is focused on targeted imaging and disease treatment. The object of this review is to discuss the process and the mechanism of nanomaterial biosynthesis by using virus as templates, such as the synthetic sites(inside and outside the virus cavity), synthesis principles, different synthesis methods, influencing factors and nanomaterials characterization. In addition, the applications of these nanomaterials in different fileds, such as nanocatalysis, nano-batteries, biomedical and medical imaging are discussed. Finally, the problems to be solved in the current research and the development trend of the future research on the synthesis of metal nanomaterials by using virus as template are described.