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All cells don't need their DNAs until it is time to reproduce or repair, unless there is a kind of cell in perpetual growth like cancer cells or stem cells.

This is just wrong.

Cells use DNA to make proteins.

That's the whole point of bioengineering bacteria by inserting DNA into their cells so they will manufacture certain proteins. The manufacture of those proteins has nothing to do with reproduction or repair. It's just something they do. They follow the instructions in the DNA.

That's the whole point of bioengineering bacteria by inserting DNA into their cells

I don't know. Bruce Lipton has his credentials, and that is what he says. If one is building a variant of a bacterium, that would be the building, growth phase where DNA would be in use. If the cell is just going about its business of eating other creatures, the DNA wouldn't be needed. Different operations, different phases of life. Lipton says he saw this in a flash of inspiration, that the DNA crowd is just wrong. We can't ask Lipton at the moment since he is on book tour and writing another book and won't read or answer emails. We'll have to figure this one out on our own.

[All cells don't need their DNAs until it is time to reproduce or repair, unless there is a kind of cell in perpetual growth like cancer cells or stem cells.]

This is just wrong. Cells use DNA to make proteins. That's the whole point of bioengineering bacteria by inserting DNA into their cells so they will manufacture certain proteins. The manufacture of those proteins has nothing to do with reproduction or repair. It's just something they do. They follow the instructions in the DNA.

I'm with xm177e2 on this one, although I can't recall any *specific* research on the matter.

Consider, for example, that that after being poisoned with ricin, death follows within a few days, and "all" ricin does is block a key step in the DNA -> protein process. The cells then shut down for lack of ongoing protein synthesis, and the victim dies as a result.

As one website discussing ricin poisoning puts it:

RTA is an N-glycosidase, which removes the bases from nucleic acids like DNA or RNA. RTA specifically targets a sequence in ribosomal RNA (the GAGA tetraloop of 18S rRNA) which completely inactivates the ribosomes, which are the machinery for producing proteins in the cell. Without functional ribosomes, the cell cannot produce the enzymes it needs to operate and dies.

(RTA is the "killer" half of the ricin molecule -- the other half, RTB, is the "trojan horse" by which the RTA slips through the cell's outer membrane.)