I think the worms thought of it first.
They suggest that pure mathematics could be used to explain some genetic principles.
Nature seems rational, pragmatic, and set in it's ways enough, for this to be a productive avenue of research.

And it is not universally agreed that mathematics exists in some metaphysical plane. Observation of nature plus condensation into (naturally given) abstract cognition: the
'perfect circle' is an abstraction of real circles.