The nacre color is the main factor that determines the color of the cultivated pearls.The nacre color trait has become an important target trait of the genetic improvement of the pearl oyster,but the measurement of the nacre color is difficult,which seriously limits the efficiency of pearl mussel breeding.Using 1-year-old red,blue,golden and white strains of juvenile H.cumingii as experimental materials,the color parameters L,a and b values were obtained by the X-Rite ColorEye XTH spectrophotometer,while correlation analysis,principal components analysis,and regression analysis were performed on each color parameter to explore the correlation between nacre color and shell color.The results showed that the nacre color and the shell color of the four H.cumingii strains were significantly correlated,and the correlation between the nacre color and the shell color of the red and blue strains was relatively stronger.The L,a and b values of nacre color in red and blue strains were all significantly correlated with at least one color parameter in shell color.Among them,the a value of nacre color in red strains had the strongest correlation with the b value of shell color,with the correlation coefficient as -0.557 (P<0.01).The L value correlation between the nacre color and the shell color was the strongest in the blue strain,and the correlation coefficient was 0.533 (P<0.01).The L value of the shell color in the golden strain was significantly correlated with the a and b values of the nacre color (P<0.05),and the correlation coefficients were 0.331 and 0.335,respectively.In the white strain,only the a value had a very significant correlation between the nacre color and the shell color (P<0.01),and the correlation coefficient was 0.286.This study reveals that the nacre color is correlated with the shell color in these four H.cumingii strains of juvenile mussels,which is of great significance for guiding the early selection of nacre color of H.cumingii.