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How discrete cell-type boundaries arise from morphogen signals that vary continuously across developing tissues is not completely understood. We use hair follicle dermal condensate formation to study a sharp developmental transition in which proliferative progenitors undergo cell-cycle exit concurrent with molecular differentiation. Using genetic and genomic approaches, we show that Wnt and Hedgehog signaling interact to coordinate the timing of these two processes. We identify a division of labor between the pathways: Wnt signaling promotes cell-cycle exit by regulating chromatin binding of the Hedgehog mediator GLI3, while Hedgehog signaling induces differentiation genes in a Wnt-dependent manner and simultaneously elevates Wnt activity. When Wnt and Hedgehog activities are temporally aligned, differentiation and cell-cycle exit occur within the same developmental window, restricting both the duration and abundance of intermediate states and producing a sharp cell-type boundary. When these signals are misaligned, intermediate states persist and expand, producing fuzzy boundaries. These findings reveal a mechanism in which interacting morphogen signals regulate the duration and abundance of intermediate states during a developmental transition, thereby controlling how continuous cell-state progression is translated into discrete tissue patterning.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.04.02.716142","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,6]],"date-time":"2026-04-06T07:25:21Z","timestamp":1775460321000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Sharp cell type boundaries emerge from coordinated morphogen signaling"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9053-1678","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ruiqi","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Computational Biology & Biomedical Informatics Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"},{"name":"Department of Pathology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yiqun","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dermatology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"},{"name":"Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sarah","family":"Platt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dermatology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tianchi","family":"Xin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Genetics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ryan","family":"Driskell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Molecular Biosciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kevin A.","family":"Peterson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sarah","family":"Van","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dermatology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hainan","family":"Lam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dermatology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shagun","family":"Lukkad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dermatology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Eva-LaRue","family":"Barber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dermatology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chae Ho","family":"Lim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ronald O. 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