The high-throughput sequencing results revealed a dominance of Fusarium among the six samples, and we therefore attempted to isolate the dominant fungi to study their enzymatic characteristics. Incubation on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates at 28 °C for 6 days resulted in the presence of two colonies (Fig. 3a–b). Two strains, ‘NK-NH1’ and ‘NK-NH2’, were isolated from the samples. NK-NH1 grew rapidly with abundant aerial mycelia on PDA, and colonies sometimes exhibited a purple colour on the upper surface with some cream coloration in the centre of the colony. Microconidia were present, varying from sparse to abundant and were generally single-celled and oval to kidney-shaped. Macroconidia were abundant, stout, and generally cylindrical, with the dorsal and ventral surfaces parallel for most of their length. Chlamydospores were also observed for NK-NH1. NK-NH2’s growth was rapid with white aerial mycelia. Microconidia were abundant and generally single-celled, oval to kidney-shaped and were produced only in false heads. Macroconidia were abundant and only slightly sickle-shaped.Figure 3Colony and micro-morphology features of two fungal isolates at 400x magnification. (a) NK-NH1. Scale bar is 10 μm. (b) NK-NH2. Scale bar is 10 μm. (c) Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree of Fusarium sp. NK-NH1 and Fusarium sp. NK-NH2 ITS gene sequences (~520–540 bp sequence used for each). Representatives of the most closely related strains and additional members of the genus Fusarium are included for taxonomic context. Bootstrap values at nodes are given as a percentage of 1000 bootstrap replicates. Scale bar indicates the expected number of substitutions/site.