Analysis of shell nacre color in full-sib families of pearl oyster （Pinctada fucata）

The shell nacre colors of the donor pearl oysters (Pinctada fucata) directly affect the colors of the pearls produced by the donors mantle pieces. Each pearl oysters shell nacre has its own color characteristics, namely the tristimulus values and color parameters. Sixteen full-sib families were analyzed in the study. Average value of L (light), a (red and green) and b (yellow and blue) ranged between 98.586~105.234, -0.967~-6.577 and 5.915~11.237, respectively. The color of F14 was the closest to green (-a) among all families, while F16 was the closest to yellow (b). The biggest Eab was 7.885 between F3 and F14, which could be observed easily by naked eye. The colours of all the families belonged to white. Among them, F1 was the best one as a candidate donor pearl oyster to provide mantle pieces because of the small color differences among individuals and the shortest distant to white color center.