Lycium barbarum is a famous salt-tolerant medicinal plant, this study conducted through indoor hydroponics experiments. High-throughput sequencing technology and qRT-PCR technology were used to determine the differential expression of photosynthetic related genes in leaves of L. barbarum under different concentrations of NaCl (0, 100, 200, 300 mmol/L), and the changes of chlorophyll content, net photosynthetic rate and Rubisco activity were analyzed.The purpose of this study was to reveal the differential expression of photosynthetic mechanisms and photosynthesis related genes of L. barbarum under salt stress, which laid the foundation for further analysis of the photosynthetic mechanism of L. barbarum in response to salt stress.The results showed as follows: (1) 14, 26 and 55 photosynthesis related genes were differentially expressed when treated with 100, 200 and 300 mmol/L NaCl for 7 days, respectively, the down-regulated genes were more than up-regulated genes with the increase of NaCl stress. (2) The results of qRT-PCR showed that the relative expressions of ATPε, CLH2 and Lhcb3 of the three photosynthetic related genes of L. barbarum showed a significantly decreased trend with the increase of NaCl stress. The results of qRT-PCR verification were basically consistent with the results of RNA-seq sequencing. (3) With the increase of NaCl stress, the contents of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, the net photosynthetic rate and the activity of Rubisco in the leaves of L. barbarum decreased significantly, but the carotenoid content did not change significantly. It was suggested that L. barbarum could regulate leaf photosynthetic activity in response to NaCl stress by inducing the differential expression of photosynthesis related genes.