The amounts of cyclic AMP (cAMP), fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (F26BP), trehalose and glycogen were determined in cell suspension cultures of the ectomycorrhiza-forming fungus Amanita muscaria (L. ex Fr.) Hooker. For the assay of cAMP a protocol was developed that enabled the detection of as little as 50 fmol of this secondary messenger by an enzyme-linked immuno assay (EIA). Values varied from <1 and up to 5 pmol cAMP mg−1 d. wt according to the age of the fungal culture. Typically, a transient increase in cAMP occurred after c. 4 d of culture of the fungus on glucose-containing medium. This increase (up to 100%) was followed by the start of the logarithmic growth phase, and by a more persistent increase in F26BP. In parallel, glucose in the medium started to decrease, whilst the amounts of fungal carbohydrates, especially the disaccharide trehalose, increased. From these data we assume that a high initial rate of glucose uptake caused an increase in the fungal pools of storage carbohydrates and, via activation of an adenylate cyclase, of cAMP. According to data reported for yeast cells this should enhance the formation of F26BP by phosphorylation of relevant enzymes. In animal and yeast cells an increase in the concentration of F26BP stimulates glycolysis by activation of the ATP-dependent phosphofructokinase (PFK). A. muscaria also possesses an F26BP activated PFK and, under conditions of symbiosis, host-derived carbohydrates are supplied mainly in the form of glucose. The implications of these findings to the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism of symbiotic plant root/fungus structures (ectomycorrhiza) are discussed.