Germ-soma cellular differentiation plays a key role in the evolutionary transition from single-celled individuality to multicellular individuality. The volvocine green algae, with their relatively recent origin of multicellularity and gradient in multicellular complexity across closely related species, serves as a model system for studying the evolution of multicellularity and cellular differentiation. Volvox carteri is the best studied species in its genus and is consequently a well-established model for the evolution of multicellular development. However, V. carteri possesses a derived type two developmental program in which cellular differentiation is determined by differences in cell size that arise through asymmetric division. Compared to other Volvox species, Volvox powersii is less studied and has ancestral features, including a type one developmental program in which large gonidia undergo rapid, symmetrical divisions with cellular differentiation occurring after hatching. With the absence of asymmetrical divisions, in contrast to the more derived type two developmental program, embryonic cell size cannot be a valid determinant of cell fate. We hypothesized that chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) inheritance may be a determining factor in cell fate due to expression levels of photosynthetic genes varying greatly among somatic and germ cells and greater amounts of chloroplast DNA in germ cells. Using gyrase inhibitors Nalidixic acid and Novobiocin, Volvox powersii cultures were manipulated to disrupt the distribution of cpDNA throughout the colonies and analyze the resulting distribution of cell types, the size of each cell, and the number of offspring in consecutive generations. Our results indicate that there is a specific amount of cpDNA that must be present in each cell to be able to fully develop into a germ cell.