The growing severity of land salinization and alkalization in some areas of China has resulted in adverse impacts on crop production and agriculture-ecological environment. Soil salinity is one of the major limiting factors affecting crop growth, development and yield in arid and semiarid regions of China. Therefore, breeding for saline and alkaline tolerant crop varieties through genetic engineering approaches is of great significance for improving the crop survivability in saline and alkaline conditions and ecological environment, as well as for enhancing crop production. With the development of molecular biology and genetic transformation technology, numerous genes related to saline and alkaline tolerances have been found and cloned. Introduction of these genes into various plants has achieved rapid improvement of their tolerances saline and alkaline conditions. Cichorium intybus L. cv. Puna. belonging to Asteraceae family is commonly known as witloof cichory and widely distributed in northern, and central China. In this study, a wheat (Triticum aestivum Linn)vacuolar Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger gene (TaNHX2), in connection with plant salt tolerance, was introduced into puna chicory using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation approach. Puna chicory leaf segments were precultured for 2-3 days before being co-cultivated with the Agrobacterium strain, pBin438-TaNHX, which containing the target gene₂ Transformed buds were selected on the MS medium containing kanamycin (80mg/L) and Cefalexin (1000mg/L), and 28 putative transgenic lines were obtained and used for further molecular and biological assay. Analysis of the transgenic plants was performed by using PCR and Southern blot hybridization, which proved that the wheat vacuolar Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger gene was successfully integrated into puna chicory genome. Effects of NaCl concentration on growth of wild type and T₀ seed germination, callus induction and seedling growth were investigated. The results indicated that transgenic puna chicory explants tolerated certain concentrations of NaCl up to 500 mmol/L, which was much higher than that of the wild type. Under 300 mmol/L NaCl stress, the transgenic seeds germinating rate,callus induction rate and bud regeneration rate were 2-4 times higher than the wide type. NaCl concentration of 500 mmol/L was the maximum amount for the survival of wide type puna chicory plantlets, under which transgenic explants could form calli, buds, and roots, and grow normally but the wild type explants could not.. We also measured the contents of malonaldehyde (MDA), and activities of peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in transgenic puna chicory seedlings and its wild counterpart. Under the stress of 500 mmol/L NaCl the MDA content was decreased by 1-3 times, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was increased by 2-3 times and peroxidase (POD) activity was increased by 1-3 times compared with those in wide type plants. The decrease of MDA content in transgenic puna chicory seedlings was negatively correlated and the increases of the enzyme activities in them were positively correlated with their tolerance to NaCl. Above all, we can make a conclusion that salt-tolerant transgenic puna chicory plants, could be obtained by introducing wheat vacuolar Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger gene into by plant engineering approaches.