Metabolic and psychiatric disorders are two major health problems which have aroused serious public concerns in both Western and Eastern societies.A better understanding of the physiological mechanisms underlying metabolic characteristics and stress-coping styles would shed light on prevention and treatment of such disorders.We employ two breeds of pigs, which differ in personality (stress-coping style) and obesity, as model.We observed significant differences in LHPA (limbic-hypothalamus-pituitary-adreal axis) activity and reactivity, and identified glucocortieoid receptor (GR) as an important player who integrates different traits in difference tissues including brain (hippocampus), liver, muscle and fat.The breed-specific pattern of GR expression can be programmed by maternal nutrition.Studies in rodents and our preliminary data accumulated so far in pigs led to a hypothesis that epigenetic mechanisms is involved in the formation of the breed-specific phenotypes and the maternal nutritional programming of GR expression contributes to the phenotype formation in the pig.