The etiological agent of gas gangrene is

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Gas gangrene arises when anaerobic, spore-forming bacteria invade devitalized tissue and release potent toxins that cause rapid muscle necrosis along with gas production from fermentation. The classic offender is Clostridium perfringens. Its alpha-toxin, a phospholipase C, disrupts cell membranes and drives extensive tissue destruction, while carbohydrate fermentation within the damaged tissue generates gas, producing the characteristic crepitus. This combination of toxin-mediated necrosis and gas formation explains the severe, fast-evolving presentation.

Other organisms listed don’t fit this pattern: Staphylococcus aureus can cause wound infections but not the distinctive gas gangrene with rapid myonecrosis; Clostridium tetani leads to tetanus from a neurotoxin, not gas gangrene; Bacillus anthracis causes anthrax with its own toxin profile, not gas gangrene.