The salt tolerant cultivar H11 and salt sensitive cultivar H30 were used to study the effects of salt pretreatment on seed germination and microspore callus formation in barley.The germination rate,taproot length during the seed germination and the yield of callus in the microspore culture stage was compared under the salt pretreatments.The expression of four key genes at the microspore stage of the two cultivars was investigated under salt stress.The results showed that the seeds and microspores of H30 were less tolerant to salt than that of H11 under 0 g/L NaCl and low NaCl pretreatment.Under the high concentration of NaCl pretreatment (15 g/L NaCl in germination stage and 300 mg/L in microspore stage),the salt tolerance of H30 was significantly enhanced.The germination rate,taproot length and the yield of callus were significantly superior to that of H11 under high concentration of salt stress.The results of the correlation analysis of germination rate,taproot length and callus yield between the two cultivars showed that the relative values of the differences between the two cultivars at the stage of germination and microspore were significantly positively correlated.The gene HvsHSP1 and HveIF1A of H30 were significantly up-regulated at the stage of microspore culture in comparison with that of H11 after 300 mg/L NaCl pretreatment.It is indicated that the differences in the response of tested barley cultivars to salt pretreatment at the stage of seed germination and microspore may be consistent.HvsHSP1 and HveIF1A of salt sensitive cultivar may be related with the response of NaCl induction at the stage of microspore.