Résumé
Mango (Mangifera indica L.), a tropical fruit of great economic importance, is generally harvested green and then commercialized after a period of storage. Unfortunately, the final quality of mango batches is highly heterogeneous, in terms of fruit size as well as in terms of gustatory quality and postharvest behavior. A large amount of knowledge has been gathered on the effects of postharvest conditions on the final quality of mango, regardless of the maturity stage at harvest. Considerably less attention has been paid to the influence of environmental factors on mango growth, quality traits, and postharvest behavior. In this chapter, we provide a review of studies on mango showing how environmental factors influence the accumulation of water, structural and non-structural dry matter in the fruit during its development. These changes are discussed with respect to the evolution of quality attributes on the tree and after harvest. The preharvest factors presented here are light, temperature, carbon and water availabilities, which can be controlled by various cultural practices such as tree pruning, fruit thinning and irrigation management. We also discuss recent advances in modeling mango function on the tree according to environmental conditions that, combined with experimental studies, can improve our understanding of how these preharvest conditions affect mango growth and quality. Harvest stage is the last but not the least step that can be linked to agronomy. The difficulty in choosing the optimal harvest stage and recent advances in evaluating the degree of fruit maturity are presented here. (Résumé d'auteur)