This story was published in the July 30, 2012 New Yorker column "Shouts & Murmurs".

Not my field of expertese, but...I suspect that these critters reproduce by division (asexually)and that they are unicellular. This means that they divide the genetic material into two identical packets. Each packet is contained in one of the two new cells that is created when the original cell splits in two. The new cells are probably not "grown" from DNA but are "reproduced" by division and expansion/growth of the existing, primal cell. This would allow a duplication process that is not dependent on the genetic material and could concievably allow a reproduction of any existing "annomolies" in the primal membrane. Hmmm...