The present invention provides transgenic plants transformed with exogenous nucleic acid encoding a Dunaliella salt-inducible or salt-responsive protein selected from the group consisting of eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3) subunit, NADPH dependent quinone reductase (QOR), aldo-keto reductase (AKR), bifunctional aspartate kinase-homoserine reductase (AK-HSD) and mitochondrial import membrane translocase subunit (TIM9), or a fragment, homolog or variant thereof. The transgenic plants have increased tolerance to salt as compared to corresponding non-transgenic plants. The present invention further provides nucleic acids, constructs and vectors encoding the Dunaliella salt-inducible or otherwise salt-responsive proteins, and to a method of producing transgenic plants having an increased tolerance to salt, a method of modifying plant capacity to survive salt shock, and a method of modifying plant recovery after exposure to salt stress, by introducing the nucleic acids, constructs and/or vectors into one or more cells of the plant.