Abstract: Body color is one of the morphological characteristics of fish. The rich change rule have alway been the focus of peoples attention. In the process of artificial culture, the body color of Plectropomus leopardus juveniles will change from red to black, which is an important material to study the development of body color. This research based on genomic data of P. leopardus and obtained the sequences of genes involved in melena synthesis（EDNRB, MC1R, SOX10, TYRL, TYRP1 and WNT5 A）. Then, the amino acid sequences encoded by genes were analysed, and their expression differences in the process of the red black body were detected by RT-qPCR. The results showed that EDNRB, MC1 R, SOX10, TYRP1 and WNT5 A genes of P. leopardus were less differentiated than other teleost’s, while TYRL genes were more differentiated. The expressions of TYRL and TYRP1 were found to be significantly up-regulated in black-skinned juveniles of P. leopardus compared to red-skinned juveniles, while there were no significant difference in gene expression of EDNRB, MC1 R, SOX10 and WNT5 A. The results showed that TYRL and TYRP1 genes may be involved in the regulation of body color of P. leopardus from red to black.