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I think there might be some confusion about the role DNA plays in a cell. DNA does not tell a cell how to function -- it's not like a brain or control center that directs actions. DNA is more like a blue-print. Components of the cell refer to the information coded in DNA to make new proteins, but many other activities of the cell don't require DNA. Converting sugars to energy, for instance, doesn't require DNA, assuming the rest of the machinery is already in place. If you remove the DNA from a cell, it can continue to live for some time. Without DNA, it can't make new proteins and can't reproduce -- so its life span is very limited -- but a cell can live without DNA. Red blood cells are a prime example. If you get the right parts together, they will operate on their own.
Red blood cells come from cells in the bone marrow. While the cells are still in the bone marrow they do have a nucleus. The DNA "tells them what to do". It isn't until just before they are released into the general circulation that they lose the nucleus. So, they can't divide. Each red blood cell has a lifespan of about 3 months. They are removed by the liver and replaced by cells coming from the bone marrow again.
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/mole00/mole00828.htm
Based on a report by Jebediah Reed, Popular Science:
A cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis's laboratory in southern India may hold a link to extraterrestrial life. Mysterious blood-colored rain fell in the state of Kerala in India from July to September of 2001. It contained microbes so far unknown on out planet. Dr. Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures from the red rain, all roughly about 10 microns in size. Dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA but are able to reproduce, even in water superheated to nearly 600 degrees Fahrenheit, way above the known upper limit for life in water, which is about 250 degrees Fahrenheit .
"Critical to Louis's theory is the length of time the red rain fell on Kerala. Two months is too long for it to have been wind-borne dust, he says. In addition, one analysis showed the particles were 50 per cent carbon, 45 per cent oxygen with traces of sodium and iron: consistent with biological material."
http://christian-science-csd.info/peace/global/canada/red_cells.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/02/red.rain/index.html
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/
Louis also discovered that, hours before the first red rain fell, there was a loud sonic boom that shook houses in Kerala. Only an incoming meteorite could have triggered such a blast, he claims. This had broken from a passing comet and shot towards the coast, shedding microbes as it travelled. These then mixed with clouds and fell with the rain.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/mar/05/spaceexploration.theobserver
