CWF19L2 couples pre-mRNA alternative splicing with the maternal-to-zygotic transition to safeguard female fertility
The maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) requires precise spatiotemporal execution of pre-mRNA alternative splicing (AS), yet the core splicing machinery driving this developmental reprogramming remains incompletely understood. Here, we identify the CWF19-like protein 2 (CWF19L2) as an indispensable pre-mRNA AS regulator that safeguards against oocyte and early embryo competence defects (OECD). While murine germline-specific depletion of Cwf19l2 spares morphological folliculogenesis, oocyte maturation, or fertilization, it induces complete female sterility characterized by profound developmental arrest at the 2-cell stage. Mechanistically, maternal deficiency of CWF19L2 localized to nuclear speckles disrupts transcription-splicing-translation coupling, collapsing AS homeostasis during maternal reserves and zygotic genome activation. We further demonstrate that CWF19L2 orchestrates the pre-mRNA splicing network through directly binding to target transcripts and indirectly modulating via interacting with the core spliceosomal factor PRPF8. Importantly, exogenous Cwf19l2 mRNA partially rescues the embryonic arrest. Together, our findings establish CWF19L2 as an indispensable AS engine during the MZT, providing a mechanistic foundation for OECD and a novel molecular etiology for female infertility.