Genes, and looking "traditional" ?

Question

I have a friend who is from Quebec. Her grandmother is Japanese (ethnic-not just a citizen) and her grandfather is a British-Canadian. Her mother is 1/2 Japanese and her father is French. My friend, got married to a French Canadian man and they are getting ready to have children.

When in a conversation with my friend, she proudly told me that her kids will have "full blood Japanese appearance---and have traditional Japanese features ( East Asian eyes, threaded black hair, and East Asian complexion). My friend has "traditional Japanese features " too. And she said that Japanese features, like all East Asian features (Chinese, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, N and S Korea, etc..) never change. As in, all a person needs is a drop of East Asian genes to look completely East Asian for many generations. I wonder if this is true? Does anyone know?

This is very interesting to me.

And what genes create an East Asian phenotype vs. a European phenotype?

Answer 1

Interesting question (added a star for you).  Maybe European genes are less dominant, but who is to say that your friend did not have some European genes in her ancestry and gets a blonde, blue eyed boy.  I once knew a blonde, blue eyed Arab that was proved to be his parents offspring (traditional phenotypes).  We put it down to the white slave trade of his ancestors (got to see we all stem from Heinz variety).

Answer 2

Yes this is an interesting question. Asian/Eastern , genes are very dominant, especially over European genes, as are the black African genes over white/European ones. There are always exceptions to the rule of course. A colleague of mine is Chinese and her husband is a black African, both of their children look Chinese, even their skin colouring is "yellow" as opposed to black or brown and their hair is straight and black.One would have thought that the more prominent African gene would have taken precedence, but it was `nowhere `to be see. It is very interesting how  the genes work, and it is wonderfull that we can all be so different in looks.

A star for you!

Answer 3

She may be surprised! I knew a Chinese lady who married a white guy-and her daughter was blonde (not just as a baby,I knew thegirl age 5/6 and she had long blonde hair.).She had slightly tilted eyes (which were brown) but otherwise looked far more caucasian than Asian.