| Summary: | Previous studies have shown that WRKY transcription factors play important roles in abiotic stress responses. Thus, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) was used to identify the function of <i>SlWRKY79</i> in the salt tolerance of tomato plants by downregulating the expression of the <i>SlWRKY79</i> gene. Under the same salt treatment conditions, the <i>SlWRKY79</i>-silenced plants showed faster stem wilting and more severe leaf shrinkage than the control plants, and the bending degree of the stem of the <i>SlWRKY79</i>-silenced plants was also greater than that of the control plants. Physiological analyses showed that considerably higher levels of hydrogen peroxide (H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>), superoxide anion (O<sup>2−</sup>), and abscisic acid (ABA) accumulated in the leaves of the <i>SlWRKY79</i>-silenced plants than in those of the controls after salt treatment. Taken together, our results suggested that <i>SlWRKY79</i> plays a positive regulatory role in salt tolerance in tomato plants.
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