College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences

Education:

Ph.D., (exp. Winter 2025) Plant Pathology and Molecular Plant Sciences. College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and College of Natural Science. Michigan State University. East Lansing, Michigan.

B.S., 2020 Sustainable Plant Systems, Horticulture Specialization. College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. The Ohio State University. Columbus, Ohio.

Research Interests:

Novel strategies for plant disease management and detection; molecular plant diagnostics; oomycete and fungal pathogens; specialty fruit and vegetable production; pathogen population genetics.

Awards:

USDA-NIFA AFRI Predoctoral Fellowship ($107,000) - 2024
2022-2024 Travel Awards
CANR Alumni Board Scholarship (2023-2024)
ASEV Traditional Scholarship (2023-2024)
Plant Science Fellowship (2020-2022)
Fruit Industry Scholarship (MSHSA) (2021 and 2024)

Peer-Reviewed Publications:

1. Heger, L., Sharma, N., McCoy, A., Martin, F.N., Miles, L., Chilvers, M.I., Naegele, R., Miles, T.D. 2025. Multiplexed real-time and digital PCR tools to differentiate clades of Plasmopara viticola causing downy mildew in grapes. Plant Dis. In review.
2. Sharma, N., Heger, L., Combs, D.B., McFadden-Smith, W., Holland, L., Brannen, P., Gold, K.M., Miles, T.D. 2025.  Prevalence of mutations associated with QoI, QiI, QioSI and CAA fungicide resistance within Plasmopara viticola in North America and a tool to detect CAA resistant isolates. Phytopathology.
3. Check, J., Harkness, R., Heger, L.*, Chilvers, M., Mahaffee, W., Sakalidis, M., Miles, T.D. 2024. It’s a trap!: An approachable guide to constructing and using rotating-arm air samplers. Plant Dis. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-01-24-0131-SR 
4. Check, J., Harkness, R., Heger, L.*, Chilvers, M., Mahaffee, W., Sakalidis, M., Miles, T.D. 2024. It’s a trap!: Exploring the application of rotating-arm impaction samplers in plant pathology. Plant Dis. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-10-23-2096-FE
5. Alzohairy, S.A., Heger, L., N. Nikzainalalam and T.D. Miles. 2022. Cross resistance of SDHIs in B. cinerea and response of SDHB mutations. Phytopathology.
6. Heger, L., Giraud, D., Miles, L., Byrne, J., Miles, T.D. 2022. First report of Neofusicoccum ribis causing stem blight and dieback of blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) in Michigan. Plant Dis.
7. Shemanski, S., Longley, R., Hatlen, R. J., Heger, L., Sharma, N., Bonito, G., Miles, T.D. 2022. The fungal blueberry fruit microbiome varies by tissue type and fungicide treatment. Phytobiomes.

Related Work:

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BN6uY_8AAAAJ&hl=en
https://mps.natsci.msu.edu/news-events/news/2024-11-student-view-financial-success.aspx
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/psm-phd-candidate-lexi-heger-awarded-usda-nifa-afri-predoctoral-fellowship