Briefly describe how the artificial manipulation of plasmids has been used for technological applications

Described very simplistically, plasmids allow the incorporation of a desirable gene from one species into another species. This is in effect genetic modification. For example, to increase the resistance of corn to pest insects, the insecticidal proteins Cry1F and Cry34/35Ab1 have been taken from the common soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis and incorporated into GMO corn.