Increased attention on the agricultural impacts to environment has revealed excessive N input to be a major concern. Sowing date reportedly impacts crop N uptake, however, few studies have assessed the effects of late sowing with reduced N apply on crop N status and grain yield. We evaluated three treatments: normal sowing (8 October), late sowing (22 October), and optimized late sowing (22 October, with 75% N application) over two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) growing seasons (2017)(2018)(2019), and assessed their effects on crop N status, N allocation and use, net photosynthetic rate (P max ), grain yield, and soil N budget. Compared to normal sowing, optimized late sowing resulted in near-optimum N status, improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), nitrogen utilization efficiency (UTE), and nitrogen uptake efficiency (UPE), while maintaining a high yield. Although aboveground N uptake of late and optimized late sowing at anthesis was lower than that of normal sowing, N distribution was more optimized, mainly manifesting as: unchanged N allocation to the individual plant, but increased N allocation to flag leaf, and steeper green leaf area N in the canopy under optimized late sowing. Optimized N nutrition index and N distribution under late sowing contributed to a higher P max , which resulted in a higher dry matter accumulation rate during post-anthesis, and ultimately a consistent grain yield among the three treatments. Moreover, N input reduction under optimized late sowing decreased the final mineral N in the 0-100-cm soil layer at harvest and apparent N loss, which reduced environmental pollution and resources waste.Abbreviations: AGN, aboveground nitrogen uptake; N f-min , final mineral N in the 0-100-cm soil layer at harvest; N loss , apparent N loss; NNI, nitrogen nutrition index; NUE, nitrogen use efficiency; P max , net photosynthetic rate; SLN, specific green leaf area nitrogen; UPE, nitrogen uptake efficiency; UTE, nitrogen utilization efficiency.

OVATE family proteins (OFPs) are plant-specific transcription factors that play important roles in plant development. Although common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a major staple food worldwide, OFPs have not been systematically analyzed in this important crop. Here, we performed a genome-wide survey of OFP genes in wheat and identified 100 genes belonging to 34 homoeologous groups. Arabidopsis thaliana, rice (Oryza sativa), and wheat OFP genes were divided into four subgroups based on their phylogenetic relationships. Structural analysis indicated that only four TaOFPs contain introns. We mapped the TaOFP genes onto the wheat chromosomes and determined that TaOFP17 was duplicated in this crop. A survey of cis-acting elements along the promoter regions of TaOFP genes suggested that subfunctionalization of homoeologous genes might have occurred during evolution. The TaOFPs were highly expressed in wheat, with tissue- or organ-specific expression patterns. In addition, these genes were induced by various hormone and stress treatments. For instance, TaOPF29a-A was highly expressed in roots in response to drought stress. Wheat plants overexpressing TaOPF29a-A had longer roots and higher dry weights than nontransgenic plants under drought conditions, suggesting that this gene improves drought tolerance. Our findings provide a starting point for further functional analysis of this important transcription factor family and highlight the potential of using TaOPF29a-A to genetically engineer drought-tolerant crops.