Jie JIANG, Tiantian ZHANG, Siyuan JIA, Siyuan YIN, Wenjuan JIA, Yue HU, Lu WANG, Lei HAN, Houxing YAN, Binbin XIAO, Fei LIN, Zhongyu DOU, Chunwu YANG
Soil salinization severely restricts global agricultural production, and screening salt−tolerant crops is crucial for utilizing saline−alkali lands. This study employed salt−tolerant triticale cultivar Jinsicao 1 (JS−1) and conventional cultivar Jisi 3 (JS−3) as materials, simulating salt stress with 300 mmol/L NaCl solution. Through physiological, biochemical, and metabolomic analyses, we revealed the metabolic regulation mechanisms of triticale in adapting to salt stress. The results showed that salt stress significantly inhibited growth in both cultivars, but JS−1 maintained higher biomass, water content, stronger antioxidant capacity, and lower ion toxicity under stress. Metabolomic analysis identified numerous differential metabolites, with particular focus on metabolites specifically upregulated in JS−1 under salt stress. In leaves, these metabolites were primarily fatty acids, amino acids, and carbohydrates, while in roots they were mainly flavonoids, amino acids, and carbohydrates. Both roots and leaves of the salt−tolerant cultivar accumulated carbohydrates and amino acids for osmoregulation. However, JS−1 relied on the accumulation of unsaturated fatty acids for reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging in leaves, whereas flavonoids played this role in roots. These findings demonstrate that salt−tolerant triticale coordinates the accumulation of distinct metabolite types in roots and leaves to mitigate salt−induced damage.