This article reviews in detail the biology of phosphate solubilizing microbes in the soil, to serve as a framework for the development of alternatives for the extensive use of phosphate biofertilizers. Different sources of information, primary and secondary, addressing the various aspects of biosolubilization of phosphorus in the soil, giving priority, but not exclusively, to those published in the last fifteen years, were reviewed. A review of the dynamics of soil phosphorus, the taxonomy of phosphorus solubilizing microorganisms, the mechanisms involved in the solubilization and critical analysis of technology from some relevant results of field tests is presented. It is concluded that phosphate solubilization process is a wide dispersion in the soils of the world, whose biological bases are relatively well understood, which can support in the near future the development of efficient and sustainable biotechnologies for phosphorus nutrition.