Abstract:This study aimed to investigate the effects of NaCl salt on the growth and physiological responses of endophyte infected (E+) Achnatherum inebrians (A1),endophyte non-infected (E-) Achnatherum inebrians (A2),Festuca arundinacea cv.Island (A3) and Festuca arundinacea cv.Hound 6 (A4).Five NaCl concentrations (0.1%,0.3%,0.5%,0.7% and 0.9%) were imposed.Shoot length,root length,shoot-root ratio,proline,malondialdehyde (MDA),superoxide dismutase (SOD),peroxidase (POD) were analysed.The comprehensive principal component analysis was used to determine the NaCl tolerance of those four germplasm.The results indicated that shoot length and root length of seedlings decreased with the increasing NaCl concentration compared with the control;and severe salt stress (0.7% and 0.9%) significantly inhibited seedling growth (P<0.05).The Na+/K+ ratio was significantly increased (P<0.05) under mild NaCl stress.The proline content and the activity of POD and SOD initially increased followed by a decrease along with the increasing NaCl stress;the values were significantly higher under severe salt stress (0.7%) compared with the CK.MDA content increased with the increasing NaCl concentration,and significantly increased under severe salt stress compared with the control group (P<0.05).The salt tolerance followed the order of A1>A2>A3>A4,and POD,SOD,root length and proline were the main indicators for the comprehensive evaluation of salt tolerance of seedlings.