Low-down American type (5)
I believe the answer is:
genus
'type' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'low-down american' is the wordplay.
'low down' becomes 'gen' (both can mean information).
'american' becomes 'US' (abbreviation for United States).
'gen'+'us'='GENUS'
(Other definitions for genus that I've seen before include "Part of the family" , "Taxonomic class between family and species" , "Biological group containing one or more species" , "Taxonomic grouping" , "Type" .)