PacBio HiFi reads data sets for the ATCC-authenticated isolate of Candida albicans SC5314 (ATCC MYA-2876).

Candida albicans is a yeast of major medical importance. The genome sequence for the reference isolate SC5314 has been available for many years and is displayed as a phased diploid assembly through a public community resource. As DNA sequencing technologies continue to advance, new high-quality data sets can be generated to augment existing genome resources. Here, we present Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) HiFi data sets with exceptional read length and sequencing depth. The data sets were generated from C. albicans SC5314 newly obtained from the American Type Culture Collection, thereby authenticating the isolate to a community-accessible source. The PacBio HiFi data set with a mean read length greater than 14 kb was assessed for its potential to support construction of a phased diploid genome assembly. Most chromosomes were effortlessly resolved as gapless, phased haplotypes with telomeres at both ends; however, challenging regions including the rDNA locus on one copy of chromosome R remained longer than could be fully resolved using these high-quality, state-of-the-art data. The PacBio HiFi reads data sets are available through GenBank and provide a valuable resource for exploring diploid loci in this important reference strain.