I’m just reading a book by Gilbert Ling which suggests that DNA is just a toolkit used by the cell which is actually the cytoplasm.
There is certainly something to that. Some system (wrong word but I can’t think of a better one) decides when to or if to employ any given code in an animal’s DNA and that makes all the difference in what kind of animal is produced. Chickens’ DNA has code in it to grow teeth. What decides not to acces this code in chickens born today?
On the other hand there's this deal recently discovered where brand new stars start spewing vast quantities of water molecules at the poles ~ you can just imagine the kind of pressures you'd find in that environment.
It takes 50,000 atmospheres pressure to force water molecules into a double-helix format. That's certainly a start.
Life itself may be a primary characteristic of this particular universe.
There have been reports of chemicals typical of those that make up cell walls and membranes being available in great quantities in interstellar space.