Background: The gonad is the major factor affecting animal reproduction. The regulatory mechanism of the expression of protein-coding genes involved in reproduction still remains to be elucidated. Increasing evidence has shown that ncRNAs play key regulatory roles in gene expression in many life processes. The roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in reproduction have been investigated in some species. However, the regulatory patterns of miRNA and lncRNA in the sex biased expression of protein coding genes remains to be elucidated. In this study, we performed an integrated analysis of miRNA, messenger RNA (mRNA), and lncRNA expression profiles to explore their regulatory patterns in the female ovary and male testis of Pelodiscus sinensis. Results: We identified 10,446 mature miRNAs, 20,414 mRNAs and 28,500 lncRNAs in the ovaries and testes, and 633 miRNAs, 11,319 mRNAs, and 10,495 lncRNAs showed differential expression. A total of 2814 target genes were identified for miRNAs. The predicted target genes of these differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs and lncRNAs included abundant genes related to reproductive regulation. Furthermore, we found that 189 DEmiRNAs and 5408 DElncRNAs showed sex-specific expression. Of these, 3 DEmiRNAs and 917 DElncRNAs were testis-specific, and 186 DEmiRNAs and 4491 DElncRNAs were ovary-specific. We further constructed complete endogenous lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA networks using bioinformatics, including 103 DEmiRNAs, 636 DEmRNAs, and 1622 DElncRNAs. The target genes for the differentially expressed miRNAs and lncRNAs included abundant genes involved in gonadal development, including Wt1,

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Inorganic metal (hydro)oxide supports with appropriate basicity or acid-base properties can promote oxidative esterification of furfural over Au-based catalysts, however, they suffer the problems of easy inactivation induced by the leaching of the components in this water-producing reaction and the shield of catalytic sites by product adsorption. In this work, we report efficient and stable oxidative esterification of furfural over Au nanoparticles anchored in aminopropyl-grafted silica aerogel. The support is insoluble and possesses no strong Lewis acid sites to adsorb oxygen-containing products or intermediates, reducing the probability of catalyst deactivation induced by adsorption. In 7 cycles of reactions, the catalyst maintained the initial activity without any treatments, the yields of alkyl furoate kept above 98 %, and no agglomeration and leaching of Au occurred. Moreover, the roles of Au, alkyl chain, À NH 2 group and Au-activated O species in reactions were clarified, and accordingly, a possible catalytic mechanism involving oxidative dehydrogenation was given.

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