Attenuated Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is effective for the prevention of severe tuberculosis infection in childhood, but its protective efficiency shrinks along with children growing up. BCG persisted for a long time after vaccination, therefore it mainly induces short-lived effector memory T cells. This may be the reason why BCG can’t provide long-term protection. Novel tuberculosis subunit vaccine composed of effective antigens with suitable adjuvants could induce Th1 type cell-mediated immune responses and provide protection against tuberculosis. Animal experiments showed that expanding the spectrum of antigens could improve the protective efficacy of subunit vaccine effectively. Moreover, subunit vaccine has been proven to induce long-lived central memory T cells, which helps to provide a longer-term protective immunity compared with BCG. The differentiation of memory T cells is regulated by antigen characteristic and dose, cytokines, transcription factors, and drugs like rapamycin, etc. The study on the subunit vaccine and vaccine-induced immune memory will be helpful to the design and evaluation of novel tuberculosis vaccines.