Abstract: Soil salinization and alkalization seriously restricts the development of agricultural production and is one of the major problems encountered in agricultural development of the world.It is fundamental to develop and utilize saline-alkali land resources by understanding the effects of salt and alkali stress on plants, the responses of plants to salt and alkali stress, and the mechanisms of saline-alkali tolerance in plants.Compared with salt stress including ion stress, osmotic stress or oxidative stress, the high pH stress was also added in alkali stress, which becomes more significant and complex for plants.Iron ion is an important metal ion that is indispensable for plant growth and development.However, the efficiency of iron ion absorption and utilization by plants is greatly reduced in saline-alkali soil, seriously affecting the normal growth and metabolism of plants.In this paper, we summarized physiological damages of saline-alkali stress on plants and relevant research on the utilization of saline-alkali plant resources.The signal transduction and molecular mechanisms of plants under saline-alkali stress were reviewed, while the relationship between the iron absorption/transfer and the saline-alkali stress for a deeply understanding of saline-alkali stress was highlighted.The paper would provide a theoretical basis for mining the saline-alkali tolerance genes, breeding new saline-alkali tolerant crops, and finally exploring and utilizing saline-alkali soil resources.