Tuletatud sordi võib saada aretuse teel mutandist, lähtesordi isendist, tagasiristamisel või transformatsioonil geenitehnoloogiat kasutades, samuti somaatilisel kloonimisel või muul seda laadi viisil.
On the one hand, there have been a number of researchers who have highlighted the way Dolly's development raises a series of interesting implications. Not because the technology is envisaged as being used to manufacture large numbers of genetically identical animals, but because the development of a technique allowing an animal to be produced from a cell of an adult animal (somatic cloning) - and hence Dolly - opens the way for gaining new basic scientific insight, inter alia into the ageing processes.