Dear Maoqi Xu,
You could use limma-voom instead, which will handle 1000 samples in a few seconds without the need for extra memory.
See:
http://genomebiology.com/2014/15/2/R29
If you particularly wanted to stick to an exact negative binomial analysis, then you could consider edgeR which uses considerably less memory than DESeq for large datasets, but for so many samples voom would seem the way to go.
Best wishes
Gordon
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There is no sample size that would make me want to use a Wilcoxon test or genewise permutation test to test for differential expression with RNA-seq data. We use voom-limma for large RNA-seq datasets.
There are many reasons for why I wouldn't use a permutation test. Here are few examples: It can't properly account for variations in sequencing depth. It is unable to adjust for batch effects. It can't incorporate quality weights or adjust for heteroscedasticity. It doesn't estimate magnitude of change. It doesn't extend to pathway signature analyses.
PS. Rather than adding a question to an old thread, it would be better to start a new question with a title that better describes your question. Then you wouldn't need to apologize about re-opening the conversation.