Polyovulation in the South American Plains Vizcacha, Revisited: Coexistence of Spontaneous and Induced Ovulation

Abstract

The South American plains vizcacha, Lagostomus maximus, is recognized as the mammalian species with the highest ovulationrate which can reach as many as 800 ova. This remarkable polyovulation phenomenon was first reported in the 1970s and hasremained unchanged in its findings ever since. We conducted an extensive re‐evaluation of ovulation in L. maximus byexamining natural ovulation, ovulation induced through the administration of exogenous hormones and autologous seminalplasma, while also categorizing the morphological characteristics and maturation stages of the released ova. Our results confirmL. maximus as the foremost polyovulatory mammalian species, albeit with a mean of 154 ± 87, ranging from 29 to 326 oocytesper oestrous cycle. We observed the concurrent presence of spontaneous ovulation, serving as a mechanism to eliminatedefective oocytes, alongside induced ovulation, referred to as ?euovulation,? that promotes the release of cumulus‐oocytecomplexes suitable for fertilization. In addition, we provide evidence for the involvement of seminal plasma in the process ofinduced ovulation and show that the ?pseudovulation? phenomenon occurring at mid‐gestation, which contributes to theformation of secondary corpora lutea, does not entail the release of oocytes into the oviducts. Our analysis also revealed thepresence of spontaneous parthenogenetic oocyte activation and subsequent development, which occurred both during oocyterelease in the ovulatory phase and within unruptured follicles in the ovary.