The degree of soil salinization in China is becoming more serious in cultivated land, which poses a major threat to China’s food security in future．Identifying novel salt-tolerant genes and understanding their functions in salt stress adaptation will provide us the basis for effective engineering strategies to improve crop stress tolerance. Many studies have shown that late embryogenesis abundant protein (LEA) plays a positive role in the process of plant responses to abiotic stress. In this study, we isolated TaLEA1gene and analyzed its expression pattern, physical and chemical properties of LEA1 protein as well as its function by overexprssing in Arabidopsis. The results showed that TaLEA1 belonged to the third group LEA proteins based on amino acid sequence analysis. LEA1 was stably hydrophilic protein and rich in α-helix and β-turn, which provided structure foundation for its response to stress. TaLEA1 expressions were detected in wheat root, stem, leaf, flower and seed, and that high salt stress can induce TaLEA1 expression. Overexpression of TaLEA1 conferred salt and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana with higher seed germination rate, looger root length and chlorophyll content than the wild-type. The results and achievements in this study will provide the gene associated with salt tolerance with great potential for wheat improvement and the theoretically basis for deciphering the salt tolerance mechanism of the candidate gene.