Abstract: Effect of salinity stress on the physiological indexes of barley seedlings was studied. The results showed that the content of soluble sugar and proline in barley shoot increased, and the rate of K+/Na+decreased with increasing of NaCl concentration. The proline content of CM72 was 1.526 μmol·g-1 under 0.6% NaCl stress. There were some differences in soluble sugar content, proline content and the rate of K+/Na+among different barley cultivars under the same concentration of NaCl. With the high synthetic capability to osmotic compounds, CM72 showed great tolerance to salinity stress, Taixing 9425 and Supi 3 followed with it．

Key words: barley, salinity stress, physiological indexes