Significance Evolutionary and comparative genomics, combined with reverse genetics, have the power to identify and characterize new biology. Here, we use these approaches in several nontraditional model species of budding yeasts to characterize a budding yeast secondary metabolite gene cluster, a set of genes responsible for production and reutilization of the siderophore pulcherrimin. We also use this information to assign roles in pulcherrimin utilization for two previously uncharacterized Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes. The evolution of this gene cluster in budding yeasts suggests an ecological role for pulcherrimin akin to other microbial public goods systems.