SUN1 and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome: Surprisingly, knocking down SUN1 in Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome cells cultured in vitro prevented heterochromatin loss and accelerated senescence; in contrast, an over-accumulation of the SUN1 protein in the NE and the Golgi apparatus triggers nuclear envelope rupture (Chen et al., 2012; Chi et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2012).