[BioC] what is the best way to correlate SFP data to a phylogenetic correlation?

[lgilbert at berkeley.edu]

I don't know where to start:
I'm planning on generating a single feature polymorphism (SFP) map for 11
primate strains of malaria using a high density array. Some previous work
on these primate malarias found a significant negative correlation between
a quantitative measure of virulence and the number of host species each
primate malaria could infect using a least squares model.
I want to somehow test or establish an association with the SFP divergence
score for genes implicated in host specificity to this other data- the
host number-virulence correlation. I don't know what would be the best
statistical approach- some likelihood method, a multivariate correlation?
Sincerely,
Betty