We isolated and characterized a gene encoding the soybean NAC transcription factor,GmNAC8.The results showed that it contained an 981bp ORF encoding 326 amino acids with a theoretical molecular mass of 31 kDa and a pI of 6.2 and had only one copy in soybean genome.GmNAC8 protein had a conserved NAC domain in the N-terminals and showed high similarity to other NACs, especially TERN (Tobacco elicitor-responsive gene encoding NAC domain protein) subgroup members.