Autopoiesis is not an easy set of concepts but one of the ideas is that details of structure are much less important that preservation of relationships that allow an entity to replenish its own constituents. Planarian are damn adaptable, but this is hardly news.
Nick Lane emphasizes that DNA is subsidiary to bioenergetics and “proton pumping” across membranes. His recent book “Transformer” focuses on the Kreb’s cycle and mitochondria as the crux of life (and autopoiesis, although he does not use this term).
Lane is extremely readable. Maturana is almost inscrutable.
I enjoined the target article, but am not comfortable boiling down development to “bioelectrics”. A complementary perspective but I do not think this will get us farther than good old developmental molecular biology.