Mammalian oocyte maturation is a tightly regulated process driven by the selective release of maternal mRNAs from phase separated condensates. In the absence of new transcription, posttranscriptional mechanisms define each stage of development. The spatiotemporal control of mRNA metabolism is a determining factor of oocyte quality making the oocyte an ideal model system. In this project we have utilised poly(A)-tail measurement methods involving both Illumina and Nanopore sequencing to outline the polyadenylation state of developmentally critical transcripts. In addition to the expected stabilising effect of cytoplasmic polyadenylation, we identify transcripts previously thought to become adenylated for translational activation, that are instead mRNA degradation intermediates. The nucleotide resolution of sequencing approaches reveals that long poly(A) tails can be associated with mRNA degradation intermediates. This highlights an additional and previously confounding pathway within mRNA metabolism. We have also developed a new biochemical assay to ask whether long non-coding RNAs interact with cytoskeletal structures to influence cytoplasmic events. We will use these assays to investigate how the RNA-binding protein CPEB3 might contribute to the formation of, and sequestration of mRNA in, phase separated compartments to modulate the spatiotemporal translation of target mRNA that unpin fertility.