“…Specific effects of the lack of AOX1a on photosynthetic efficiency have been investigated at mechanistic depth ( Bartoli et al, 2005 ; Dahal et al, 2015 ; Dahal and Vanlerberghe, 2017 , 2018 ), while observations of AOX1a-related phenotypes under biotic or salt stress have been more loosely linked to the modulation of mitochondrial ROS production ( Smith et al, 2009 ; Vishwakarma et al, 2015 ; Dahal and Vanlerberghe, 2017 ). Even though the AOX mode of function supports the idea of a platform role in alleviating mETC flux impairment and maintaining cellular redox balance across a broad range of developmental and environmental fluctuations ( Van Aken et al, 2009 ; Selinski et al, 2018 ; Florez-Sarasa et al, 2020 ; Vanlerberghe et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ), the phenotypes associated with the genetic impairment of AOX function in vivo have been remarkably mild, and limited to specific growth regimes ( Giraud et al, 2008 ; Strodtkötter et al, 2009 ; Kühn et al, 2015 ; Oh et al, 2021 ). Consistent with these mild and specific effects, a range of treatments that we used to induce acute stress at the seedling level did not lead to any obvious phenotypic difference ( Supplemental Figure S2 ).…”