Relationship Between Shell Color and Growth and Survival Traits in the Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas

Shell color is regarded as an economic trait in many breeding programs of bivalve mollusks, but the relationship between shell color and production traits remains controversial. In our breeding program of Crassostrea gigas, solid white, black, and orange shell lines were obtained, and second-generation (F2) and testcross families with segregating shell colors were constructed by crossing these three lines. These segregating families provided ideal samples for investigating the relationship between shell color and production traits in C. gigas. The growth and survival of 7-month-old oysters with different shell colors sampled within the same families were compared in seven F2 families and 13 testcrosses. In addition, the growth and survival of oysters from the three shell color lines were compared at 4 and 16 months of age. The growth and survival rates of the orange shell line were significantly lower than those of the white and black shell lines. However, no significant difference in growth between oysters with different shell colors was observed within segregating families, except the testcrosses produced by crossing orange- and white-shelled grandparents, and no significant difference in survival was observed in any family. Overall, no significant correlation was observed between shell color and production traits in C. gigas. These results suggest that shell color cannot be used as a marker to guide the selection of growth and survival traits. Thus shell color and production traits should be selected independently in oyster breeding programs.