The purpose of this study was to clone the gene of salt-stress correlative (ZmSC1) from maize and analyze the molecular features and biological function of salt tolerance in Arabidopsis. The full length of ZmSC1 was cloned from maize B73 and protein sequence was compared and aligned with ZmSC1 homologs in other species. In addition, the mRNA level was measured using qRT-PCR under the treatment of NaCl, and the protein localization of ZmSC1 in tobacco leaves was analyzed. ZmSC1 gene was transferred into astc Arabidopsis mutant and wild-type plants, and its effects on the seed germination rates and primary root length were analyzed. The expression level changes of stress-related genes in ZmSC1 overexpressing transgenic lines were analyzed under the treatment of 140 mmol·L^-1 NaCl. As results, the full length of ZmSC1 was 423 bp, encoding 141 amino acids. Protein sequence alignment revealed that ZmSC1 had high conservation with TaSC1 and AtSC1, which are known to be involved in salt stress responses. Transient expression of the ZmSC1-GFP in tobacco leaf epidermal cells showed a membrane localization of ZmSC1. The pCAMBIA1301-ZmSC1 vector was constructed and further transferred into Arabidopsis, and then the complemental lines for atsc Arabidopsis mutant and overexpressing ZmSC1 transgenic lines were obtained. Under the treatment of 140 mmol·L^-1 NaCl, the results showed that complemental lines had higher seeds germination rate and primary root length than the mutant, suggesting that ZmSC1 can rescue the phenotype of mutant. In addition, the overexpressing ZmSC1 transgenic lines showed higher seed germination rate and longer primary roots than the wild type. Moreover, the higher expression level of stress-related genes (AtRD29A, AtSOS2, AtSOS3 and AtCDPK1) in overexpressing ZmSC1 transgenic lines were detected than the wild type. In conclusions, the result showed that ZmSC1 gene, a homologous gene of TaSC1 and AtSC1, can play an important role in improving salt tolerance of Arabidopsis.