Information on American type (5)
I believe the answer is:
genus
'type' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'information on american' is the wordplay.
'information' becomes 'gen' (gen can informally mean information).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'american' becomes 'US' (United States).
'gen'+'us'='GENUS'
(Other definitions for genus that I've seen before include "Type" , "Taxonomic category above species" , "Taxonomic class between family and species" , "Taxonomic grouping" , "The Homo of Homo sapiens?" .)