In a bacterial cell, DNA plasmids are found freely floating in the cytoplasm , not inside a nucleus (bacteria don’t have one). They are small, circular pieces of DNA that sit in the cytoplasmic fluid along with ribosomes and the main bacterial chromosome (which is also in the cytoplasm, in a region called the nucleoid). Plasmids are separate from that main chromosome and can be present in multiple copies in the same cell, all suspended in the cytoplasm.