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Jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) seedlings were inoculated with either one of the ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi, Laccaria bicolor (Miare) Orton or Pisolithus tinctorius (Pers.) Coker and Couch, and grown for 16 weeks in a growth chamber along with non-ECM controls. Five enzymes involved with the assimilation of nitrogen or the synthesis of amino acids were measured in the 3 jack pine root systems as well as in the pure fungal cultures. Pisolithus tinctorius in pure cultures. Pisolithus tinctorius in pure culture had no detectable activity of nitrate reductase (NR, EC 1.6.6.1), glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH, EC 1.4.1.2), glutamate oxoglutarate aminotransferase (GOGAT, EC 1.4.1.13) but did have some glutamine synthetase (GS, EC 6.3.1.2) activity. Laccaria bicolor in pure culture had no NR activity, small levels of GDCO activity, and high GS, GDH and GOGAT activity. The high levels of enzymatic activity present in L. bicolor indicate that it may play a greater role in the nitrogen metabolism of its host plant than P. tinctorius. ECM infection clearly altered the enzymatic activity in jack pine roots but the nature of these changes depended on the fungal associate. Non-ECM root systems had higher specific activities than ECM root systems for NR, GS, GDH and GDCO but GOGAT activities were the same for both the ECM and non-ECM roots. Root systems infected with L. bicolor had significantly greater NR and GDCO activity than those infected with P. tinctorius. Differences in the GS activity of the two fungi in pure culture corresponded to the GS activity of jack pine roots in symbiotic association with these fungi. While the free amino acids profiles in foots were significantly affected by ECM infection, the profile of free amino acids exported to the stem was the same for all treatments. High asparagines and low glutamine in roots infected with P. tinctorius indicates that asparagines synthetase (EC x.x.x.x) activity should be higher within this symbiotic association than in the L. bicolor association or in the non-mycorrhizal roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]