Abstract
In order to improve the quality of ripe mangoes by managing cultural practices and storage conditions a modeling approach was used. An existing metabolic model was updated to take specificities of mango fruit sugar metabolism, fruit respiration and transpiration into account and coupled with existing models of fruit growth in dry and fresh matter, predicted based on carbon- and water-related eco-physiological and biophysical processes, respectively (Léchaudel et al., 2015, 2017). The virtual fruit model was used to investigate the effect of cultural practices and storage conditions on several fruit characteristics that can be of interest for mango processing or fruit consumption. They included fruit fresh mass and composition of the pulp in terms of dry matter content, soluble sugars, and starch concentrations. Then, the virtual mango model was used to generate numerous simulations by combining different levels of preharvest (fruit load, irrigation, position of the fruit in the tree, harvest date) and postharvest (temperature and hygrometry) factors. Among this large number of combinations, the scenarios that produce mangoes with advantageous quality criteria, such as fruit fresh mass, dry matter content and sweetness of pulp, or number of pulp slices for drying, were selected and discussed. These scenarios could then be tested and discussed with mango industry stakeholders to assess their acceptability in a process of improving fruit quality through pre- and postharvest practices.