Identification of new enhancer sequence has significant utility in the plant functional genomics. The sugarcane bacilliform badnavirus (SCBV) transcriptional enhancer has been identified. This enhancer can be used to increase the rate of transcription from gene promoters and in activation tagging experiments. A ten-fold increase in transcription was observed when a 4× array of the SCBV enhancer was placed upstream of a truncated form of the maize alcohol dehydrogenase minimal promoter. Methods of using the SCBV transcriptional enhancer are described, as are chimeric transcription regulatory regions, constructs, cells, tissues, and organisms that comprise one or more copies of the enhancer.