What causes clouds of dust and gas to form a protostar

Answer: Gravitational attraction

Gravity force causes the clouds of dust and gas to form a protostar. As this attraction force is responsible for gathering and compressing the existing elements in the cloud of gas and dust, heating them during this process.

Then, when the amount of material accumulated by gravitational contraction is large enough, and the temperature and pressure reached high enough, the nuclear fusion process will begin.

To understand it better: The hydrogen nuclei will begin to fuse, generating helium nuclei in the process and releasing huge amounts of energy.

It should be noted that the protostars radiate half of the energy contributed by the gravitational collapse and the other half is invested in heating its core.