Mammalian oocyte maturation is a tightly regulated process driven by the selective release of maternal mRNAs from phase separated condensates and polyadenylation in the cytoplasm according to developmental stage. The oocyte is therefore an ideal cell to investigate the spatial and temporal control of maternal mRNAs, which in turn are a determining factor of oocyte quality. 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 and identify transcripts that are mRNA degradation intermediates. We have also developed a biochemical assay to give insight into whether polyadenylated long non-coding RNAs potentially interact with insoluble cytoskeletal structures to influence cytoplasmic events. We further characterise the phase separation and RNA-binding potential of a Subcortical Maternal Complex protein, ZBED3, in the oocyte using confocal imaging and CLIP. Subsequently, we are in the process of further investigating how RNA-binding proteins sequester mRNA in phase separated compartments and modulate polyadenylation, as well as how RNA-RNA interactions may facilitate this condensate formation.