Salinity stress severely affects agricultural production. Seed germination is the most critical phase of plant life and is regulated by genetic and environmental factors. Setaria italica is an excellent model system for investigating the response to abiotic stresses. However, the key genes in response to salinity stress during seed germination in S. italica are largely unknown. Here, the transcriptional response of imbibed and radicle-protruded seeds to salinity stress revealed 4090 salinity responsive genes (SRGs) from the salt-tolerant cultivar Chigu 10 (CG) and salt-sensitive cultivar Fenghong 3 (FH) by RNA sequencing. Enrichment and expression pattern analysis indicated that the CG and FH cultivars exhibited specific similarities and preferences in the salinity stress response. Heatmap analysis suggested that S. italica seeds germinated under salinity stress required enhanced hormone regulation, more active primary metabolism and energy production, more cell wall modifications, and higher anticipation of autotrophic growth. Furthermore, functional validation experiments demonstrated that the SiDRM2 and SiKOR1 of SRGs significantly influenced seed germination under salinity stress. Collectively, our findings not only provide new insights into the regulatory mechanisms of seed germination under salinity stress, but also reveal promising gene resources to genetically improve the salt-tolerance capacity of S. italica and other crops.

盐分胁迫严重影响农业生产。种子萌发是植物生命中最关键的阶段，受遗传和环境因素的调控。狗尾草是一个很好的模型系统，用于研究对非生物胁迫的反应。然而，S. italica种子萌发过程中响应盐分胁迫的关键基因在很大程度上是未知的。在这里，吸收和胚根突出的种子对盐分胁迫的转录反应揭示了 4090 个盐分反应基因（SRGs) 从耐盐品种赤谷 10 (CG) 和盐敏感品种凤红 3 (FH) 通过 RNA 测序。富集和表达模式分析表明，CG 和 FH 品种在盐度胁迫反应中表现出特定的相似性和偏好。热图分析表明，在盐分胁迫下萌发的意大利斜纹贝壳种子需要增强的激素调节、更活跃的初级代谢和能量产生、更多的细胞壁修饰以及更高的自养生长预期。此外，功能验证实验表明，SiDRM2和SiKOR1的自力更生团体显着影响盐胁迫下的种子萌发。总的来说，我们的研究结果不仅为盐胁迫下种子萌发的调控机制提供了新的见解，而且还揭示了有希望的基因资源，以遗传提高S. italica和其他作物的耐盐能力。