Saline–alkaline soils are generally characterized by high pH value and Na+ toxicity (Abadía et al., 2011; Tang et al., 2014; Li et al., 2016). High pH value decreases the solubility of soil iron (Fe), and most of Fe occurs in the insoluble form of Fe3+, which is not easily absorbed by plants (Romera and Alcántara, 2004). Upon exposure to alkaline stress, plants often exhibit typical symptoms of Fe deficiency-induced chlorosis (Gong et al., 2014; Zhou et al., 2016a). Emerging evidence has indicated that the enhanced Fe acquisition can confer greater tolerance of plants to alkaline stress (Li et al., 2016; Zhou et al., 2016a). During long-term evolution, different plant species develop strategy I and II mechanisms to adapt to Fe deficient conditions, respectively (Marschner and Römheld, 1994). Strategy I plants including dicot and non-graminaceous monocot species acquire Fe mainly by three processes including rhizospheric acidification (plasma membrane-localized H+-ATPase, AHA2; Santi and Schmidt, 2009), Fe3+ reduction (ferric chelate reductase, FRO2; Robinson et al., 1999), and Fe2+ transport (iron-regulated high-affinity transporter, IRT1; Varotto et al., 2002). Furthermore, Fe can go through long-distance transport from roots to shoots by several crucial genes such as FRD3 (Green and Rogers, 2004), NAS (Haydon and Cobbett, 2007), and YSL (Waters et al., 2006). Strategy II plants including graminaceous species acquire Fe by root secretion of the mugineic acid (MA) family of phytosiderophores (PCs) to chelate Fe3+ (Jolley and Brown, 1989). Compared with strategy I plants, the strategy II plants exhibit better growth performance under alkaline stress, since the PCs-dependent Fe uptake is less susceptible to high pH conditions (Römheld and Marschner, 1986; Nozoye et al., 2011). However, the protons released by the strategy I plants are largely buffered by alkaline stress, and thus reducing the availability of soil Fe (Ohwaki and Sugahara, 1997). Importantly, exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) remarkably mitigates Fe deficiency-induced leaf chlorosis in plants by enhancing translocation of Fe from roots to shoots, indicating that high ABA levels may be beneficial to improve alkaline tolerance in plants by regulating Fe translocation (Lei et al., 2014).