PAPOLA encodes poly(A) polymerase α, a template-independent nucleotidyltransferase that adds poly(A) tails to mRNA 3' ends and thereby governs both bulk RNA maturation and the regulated translational control of specific transcripts (PMID:34048556, PMID:39617768). In maturing mouse oocytes, PAPOLA drives cytoplasmic polyadenylation of maternal mRNAs required for meiotic cell-cycle progression: it localizes to the germinal vesicle and redistributes to the ooplasm after germinal vesicle breakdown, and upon meiotic resumption CDK1 and ERK1/2 cooperatively phosphorylate it at S537, S545, and S558 to boost its activity, enabling translational activation even of transcripts lacking canonical cytoplasmic polyadenylation elements; activated PAPOLA further stimulates polyadenylation and translation of its own Papola mRNA in a 3'-UTR-dependent positive feedback loop (PMID:34048556). In somatic cells PAPOLA controls alternative polyadenylation and 3'-UTR length of target mRNAs such as CCND1, with its level dictating 3'-UTR shortening, steady-state transcript abundance, and proliferative/anchorage-independent growth (PMID:33712453). PAPOLA also acts redundantly with TENT2 and PAPOLG as a backup adenylation pathway for unadenylated premature transcription termination products when the NEXT-mediated degradation route is compromised (PMID:39617768). Its own expression is constrained at the translational level by a conserved 5'-proximal upstream ORF that represses translation of the downstream coding sequence (PMID:20174964).