Besides low Fe bioavailability, high Na+ concentrations seriously disrupt plant growth in saline–alkaline soils, and thus exposing plants to saline stress (Wang et al., 2012). Saline-tolerant plants can effectively maintain a high K+ concentration and a concurrent low Na+ in their shoots, indicating that the Na+/K+ ratio is an index of salt tolerance in plants (Cui et al., 2016). Transgenic plants with high tolerance to salt stress display lower Na+/K+ ratio compared with wild-type plants (Cui et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2016). Takahashi et al. (2007) have reported that the saline-tolerant reed plants have lower shoot Na+/K+ ratio than plants that are the most sensitive to saline stress. We observed here that shoots and roots of SA03-inoculated plants displayed relatively lower Na+/K+ ratio than non-inoculated plants under saline–alkaline stress, indicating that the enhanced saline–alkaline tolerance by SA03 was partially attributable to minimize Na accumulation. Exposure to high concentrations of Na+ has been shown to severely damage various enzymatic activities in plants (Gong et al., 2014). It is well documented that the increased ABA levels remarkably increases root net Na+ efflux and H+ influx, and decreases net K+ efflux in transgenic maize by activation of Na+/H+ antiporters and K+ channels (Zhang et al., 2016). Hence, the induced expression of Na+/H+ antiporter genes is a crucial strategy for plants to tolerate salt stress.